Emergency services and police evacuated bodies of victims following a stampede during the Lag B’Omer Jewish festival in Meron, on Friday.

At least 44 worshippers were killed and 150 injured in the early hours of Friday morning, during mass celebrations estimated to be the largest gathering since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

In the stampede, which reportedly involved a structure collapsing at the festival, several people slipped, causing dozens more to fall as a consequence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a ‘heavy disaster.’