The collapse of the temporary metal and wooden structure killed four and injured more than 60 Australian athletes and other team delegates who were visiting Israel to participate in the Maccabiah Games.

Five people, including the engineer who designed the bridge and the chair of the Tel Aviv Games Organising Committee, were convicted of recklessly causing death and injury.

A full Australian team returned to the games in 2005 and participated in a riverside ceremony unveiling a memorial to the victims of the collapse.

The Maccabiah Games, organized by Maccabi World Union (MWU) and first staged in 1932, is an athletic event held every four years in Tel Aviv, Israel, to celebrate the Zionist Revolution, and to demonstrate the unity and athleticism of the Jewish people.

The opening ceremony on July 14 at 8 p.m. (local time), held at Ramat Gan Stadium and designed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress, was attended by 50,000 people and featured hundreds of dancers, dazzling sound and light displays, and was broadcast on Israeli television.

[1][3][4] As scheduled during the opening ceremony, the participating athletes, teamed with their respective national delegations, began to cross the bridge and enter the stadium in alphabetical order.

Israeli television maintained live coverage, switching back and forth between the frantic rescue efforts outside the stadium and the festive dancing and light shows inside.

Weizman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed immediately upon the end of the ceremony to visit the victims in hospital and the games were suspended for 24 hours.

[1] Patrick Surkin, who ran the intensive care unit at Tel Aviv Medical Centre, wondered whether a toxin might be the culprit behind the infections.

[1] After Zines' death, one athlete, tennis player Sasha Elterman, 15, remained in critical condition at Schneider Children's Medical Centre in Petah Tikva.

[10] Israel's deputy minister of education, Moshe Peled, immediately convened a public commission, chaired by Yishai Dotan, to investigate the collapse.

The commission found that the Maccabiah Games' organising committee, led by Yoram Eyal, had departed from the usual practice of paying the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to construct the bridge.

Instead, in an apparent effort to reduce costs, Eyal contracted with a company called Irgunit, headed by Adam Mishori, to construct the bridge.

For the 1997 games, Maccabiah officials, apparently unwilling to pay the IDF's price of $111,000, accepted a bid from Irgunit to build the bridge for $34,750.

Zvi Bar, Ramat Gan's mayor and head of the city planning division which issued construction permits, was a member of the Maccabiah committee that helped select Irgunit.

[20] In 2000, in response to the commission's findings and after continued calls for their removal by the Australian Jewish community, MWU president Ron Bakalarz and chairman Uzi Netanel resigned.

[21][22][n 4] Based on the findings of the Dotan and police investigations, Israel's attorney general Elyakim Rubinstein brought criminal charges against Eyal, Mishori, Karagula, Ben-Ezra, and Bar-Ilan for causing death by negligence and for building without proper permits.

[24][19][13][1][25][6] During the trial, Sheba Hospital microbiologist Doctor Natan Keller testified that normally the Yarkon River water would not have posed a hazard to humans.

Citizens groups assisted with the endeavor, including the Clean Up Israel organization which was founded by Australian Phillip Foxman, who witnessed the 1997 disaster,[34] and the Jewish National Fund.

[39][32][40] In 2002, MWU reinstated Yoram Eyal as an executive official and as general manager of the Kfar Maccabiah Village in Ramat Gan, with an annual salary of US$120,000.

In spite of protests from the Australian Jewish community about Eyal's continued involvement with the games, the MWU declined to separate him from the organization.

When asked about Eyal's status in July 2007, MWU President Jeanne Futeran stated, "He's a good guy; he doesn't deserve to be further hassled over what happened.

[16][42] At the 2005 games, a memorial for the victims was unveiled at the site of the collapse, including a permanent footbridge, dubbed "Bridge of Remembrance", and a stone marker with the names of those who died.