On 30 April 2021, at about 00:45 IDT (UTC+3), a deadly crowd crush occurred on Mount Meron, Israel, during the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer, at which it was estimated that 100,000 people were in attendance.

Forty-five men and boys at the event were killed, and about 150 were injured, dozens of them critically, making it the deadliest civil disaster in the history of the State of Israel.

[1][2] The crush occurred after celebrants poured out of one section of the mountainside compound, down a passageway with a sloping metal floor wet with spilled drinks, leading to a staircase continuing down.

[4] Reuters cited Israeli media outlets in reporting that, as a precaution against the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, bonfire areas had been partitioned off, which may have created unrecognised choke-points.

On 27 June, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, Esther Hayut, announced that a three-paneled state commission of inquiry [he] would be chaired by her predecessor, former Supreme Court Chief Miriam Naor, with the other two members consisting of former Bnei Brak mayor Rabbi Mordechai Karlitz [he] and Aluf (ret.)

On the Lag BaOmer holiday, the tomb of the 2nd-century Tannaitic rabbi Shimon bar Yochai at Mount Meron becomes a pilgrimage site for thousands of Jews, where they pray, dance and make bonfires.

[22] A week before the 2021 festival, during the COVID-19 pandemic, government departments limited the gathering to up to 10,000 people on the site, approximately 3,000 at each bonfire.

In addition to the disastrous crush, the executive director at the National Coronavirus Taskforce expressed concerns about the possible spread of COVID-19 due to the huge, closely-packed crowds at the event.

[28][29] Close to 01:00, some participants began to slip and fall, either on the metal slope or the stone steps,[7][12][27][28][29][30] and were trampled over and asphyxiated by those behind.

[35] Emergency personnel tried to perform CPR on unresponsive victims, then realised that they were spending time on the dead while others were alive, but in danger of death.

[44] This was disputed by Mordechai Halperin, ex-mayor of moshav Meron, the local authority in which the site is located, who said that the passage, which narrowed an escape route, was constructed without any building permits and against his strenuous objections.

[48] The newly elected government, which was installed on 13 June, and led by Naftali Bennett as the initial Prime Minister, committed to establishing a state commission of enquiry into the disaster.

[49] On 27 June, the cabinet approved the appointment of a three-member commission led by former chief justice Miriam Naor to investigate the disaster.

The other two members of the commission are former Bnei Brak mayor Rabbi Mordechai Karelitz and former Israel Defense Forces planning chief Major General (res.)

[50] The commission was allocated a budget of NIS 6 million (US$1.83 million) and given a broad mandate, tasked with conducting a detailed probe of the disaster and recommending specific changes to the holy site at Meron, and collaborating with the attorney general and other ongoing parallel investigations into how the disaster unfolded and the decision-making processes of government and police officials that authorized the event.

The committee identified a culture of negligence at home contributing to the tragedy and blamed senior officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, for personal responsibility.

The inquiry suggested removing Yaakov Shabtai from his position, with the final decision pending government consideration due to the ongoing war.

[52][53][54] The crush was the deadliest civilian disaster in Israel's history,[28] surpassing the 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire, which killed 44.

[60][61] Residents of the non-Jewish settlements of Beit Jan, Jish, Peki'in, Tamra, and Yarka arranged programs supplying aid to the survivors.

[63] In September 2021, Toldot Aharon announced that their annual Simchat Beit HaShoeivah, which normally attracts thousands of visitors, would be closed to the public to avoid overcrowding.

[64] As a result of the stampede, the pilgrimage on Lag BaOmer has undergone drastic changes beginning in 2022, including a limit on visitors at once, a maximum of four hours per person, and a requirement to purchase tickets beforehand.