It was shortly after midnight, the celebration at its frenzied peak. Tens of thousands of people were dancing ecstatically around bonfires to the sounds of a Klezmer band. The traditional festival on Mount Meron in the Galilee, at what is believed to be the burial site of the second century Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, was also marking an end to the lockdowns and social distancing that had prevented the ritual last year. All eyes were on the main event, the lighting of a huge bonfire by adherents of the ultra-Orthodox Toldot Aharon Hassidic sect. Suddenly, the band stopped.

Footage of the densely packed crowds aired on television earlier in the evening in what was billed as the biggest ever celebration of the Lag Ba’Omer holiday.

According to various news reports, a celebrant fainted and tripped others on the stairs as they were making their way out of the site, setting off a stampede that crushed at least 45 people to death and injured some 150 in what is being described as one of the worst disasters in Israeli history.

Since its founding, Israel has been plagued by fighting and terrorist attacks. It has fought seven wars in 73 years, mounted countless military operations and quelled two lengthy Palestinian uprisings. The disaster in the early hours of April 30 was especially horrific in its dichotomy — a joyful celebration at the tomb of one of Judaism’s most revered symbols that turned within seconds into a seething, heaving sea of trampled humanity. Many of the pilgrims come to Meron annually to pray for miracles.