A Deadly Weekend

Early on Friday morning, April 29, a horrible tragedy occurred on Mt. Meron in northern Israel. The cause of the crush of people which left 45 participants in the Lag B’Omer gathering dead and 150 injured is still being investigated. Here are some news reports which give an overview of what occurred:

“All I could see were faces of agony. We went there expecting an unforgettable cultural experience. Then we got trapped in the crush. We’re still processing what we saw there. Our hearts go out to the loved ones of every victim of this tragedy. May the souls of those who passed be bound up in the bond of life” (The Blogs of Josh Vlessing).

From volunteer Yoel Shlezinger, who rescued a young boy: “Then he saw a man with his son perched on his shoulder. Shouting down to him that they should save the boy, he tried to reach the child. I locked my knee in the window frame and reached down to him. I didn’t manage to grab his armpit, I grabbed his hand and threw myself back in the direction of the window frame. Having pulled the boy to safety, Shlezinger hugged him for about ten seconds, the boy was crying. “This was good, it showed he was okay.”

“Meron tragedy left Israel’s toughest rescuers to tears and trauma. Medics were left with deep emotional scars. One says he can’t shake the memory of a boy he couldn’t reach. Another felt like a hangman.”

“You break apart inside,” says a doctor at the Meron clinic who pronounced 39 deaths.”

In addition to the Meron tragedy, a drive by shooting in the West Bank at the Tappuah Junction left three Yeshiva students wounded, two seriously.

Pray for the families impacted both by the Meron tragedy and the drive by shooting last weekend. All 45 victims who perished were buried, with the last one, 21 year old Abraham Daniel Ambon from Argentina, being laid to rest on Monday.

(Source: The Times of Israel)