Israeli Pilgrimage Canceled Amid Fears of Hezbollah Attack

Jerusalem, 14 March, 2024 (TPS) -- The Israel Defense Force’s Home Front Command on Thursday canceled an upcoming pilgrimage on Mount Meron amid concerns of a Hezbollah strike.

An estimated 30,000 people were expected to converge on Mount Meron in northern Israel on Sunday night and Monday to mark the anniversary of both the birth and death of the biblical leader and prophet Moses.

The event was canceled “per the assessment of the situation in the IDF, and in coordination with the other relevant bodies,” the Home Front Command said.

An army base located on the same mountain has been hit by Hezbollah rocket fire. On Tuesday, the Iran-backed terror group fired more than 100 rockets at northern Israel, triggering sirens across the Galilee.

Mount Meron is also the burial place of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second-century sage whose works continue to serve as the foundation of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. Celebrations on the anniversary of his death are marked with bonfires. The annual event draws around 100,000 people to his grave. Celebrations are expected to be scaled back because of the war.

In early March, a state commission of inquiry investigating Israel’s worst civilian disaster at the holy site held Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally responsible.

During the 2021 pilgrimage, 45 people were killed and 150 people were injured in a stampede triggered by a combination of overcrowded conditions and a faulty walkway in a narrow passage.

Lag B’Omer falls on April 30, 2021.