Israel buries dead after Jewish pilgrim stampede kills 45

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel on Friday was burying victims of a stampede at a Jewish pilgrimage site that killed at least 45 people, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised an investigation into one of the nation's "worst disasters". The nighttime carnage struck after pilgrims thronged to Meron at the site of the reputed tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second-century Talmudic sage, where mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews, or haredim, mark the Lag BaOmer holiday.

The health ministry put the toll at 45 dead. The Magen David Adom rescue agency said an estimated 150 had been injured.

With families anxious to bury loved ones before the Shabbat break, funerals were held in Jerusalem and the mainly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, where haredi men in traditional long black coats lined the streets to mourn. Shalom Levy, attending a funeral at a Jerusalem cemetary, called the stampede "a tragedy for the Jewish people".

Among the victims was 38-year Elazar Goldberg, whose father called on God to protect his children as his son was laid to rest in the Holy City.