More than 150 people were also injured after a bleacher crashed into an unfinished synagogue in the West Bank.
Israeli medical experts say two people have been killed and more than 150 injured after a bleacher crashed into an unfinished synagogue in the West Bank on Sunday, at the end of a major Jewish holiday.
Bleacher was full of devout Orthodox worshipers and fell for the early prayers of Shavuot. Magen spokesman David Adom told Channel 13 that paramedics had treated more than 157 people with injuries and that two had died, a 50-year-old man and a 12-year-old child.
Rescue workers were on hand, healing the injured and taking them to the hospital. The fall comes just weeks after the departure of 45 ultra-Orthodox Jews executed as a result of oppression at a religious ceremony in northern Israel.
Israeli forces said in a statement that they had dispatched medical personnel and other search and rescue teams to assist the victims. Military helicopters carried the wounded.
Amateur portraits showed the fall of Sunday in prayers in the evening at Givat Zeev, an illegal West Bank location northwest of Jerusalem.
The Ultra-Orthodox Synagogue was packed with hundreds of people.
#BREAKING
🇮🇱 30 injuries
Givat Zeev Carlin, Tribune Fall / Aran announced pic.twitter.com/ijs4tb8hjP– INTELSky (@Intel_Sky) May 16, 2021
Shavuot is a spring harvest that commemorates the day on which the Jewish calendar was given to Moses at Mount Sinai. He is known to study Tora all night and drink milk.
Israeli authorities protested.
Mayor Givat Zeev said the building was completed and was dangerous, and that police had ignored previous calls to take action. Jerusalem police chief Doron Turgeman said the tragedy was the result of “negligence” and a possible arrest warrant.
Deddi Simhi, chief of Israeli Fire and Rescue Services, told Israeli Channel 12 that “the building has not been completed. It does not even have a residence permit, so don’t comment on it.”
The video footage that appeared showed that the five-story building was incomplete, with exposed concrete, rebar, and wooden beams, as well as plastic sheets like windows. A Hebrew sign erected on the wall of the house warns that “for security reasons it is forbidden to enter the site.”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz wrote on Twitter that “my heart goes out to those affected by the tragedy in Givat Zeev”.
On April 29, riots at a religious festival in northern Israel killed 45 Orthodox Jews, a disaster that has claimed many lives throughout the country’s history.
The uprising on Mount Meron came years after the warning that the sanctuary was unsafe for the thousands of visitors who come every year to vacation on Lag Baomer.
This year’s celebrations were attended by about 100,000 people, most of them Orthodox, after strong Orthodox politicians forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others to lift restrictions.
Experts had previously warned that Mount Meron was not large enough to handle the huge influx of people who flocked there during the last vacation, and that existing infrastructure was under threat.
The issue also raised concerns about the right to self-determination of minorities in the country’s Orthodox political system.
Last year, many Orthodox communities ignored the protection of coronavirus, which led to widespread epidemics in their area and angered civilians.
