Israel’s top government monitor announced Monday morning the opening of a formal investigation into the Meron Lag Ba’Omer disaster which claimed the lives of forty-five people late last week.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said Monday that his office will launch a special probe of the Meron disaster.

Englman said during his announcement that the catastrophe “was preventable”.

“I will open a special investigation which will probe the Mount Meron disaster,” Englman said. “During the night between last Thursday and Friday, the State of Israel experienced one of its worst civilian disasters ever, when 45 revelers visiting Rashbi’s gravesite at Meron died under tragic circumstances, with many others injured.”

“Unfortunately, this was a disaster which was preventable. Now the responsibility rests on us to examine how this event could have been prevented.”

“Any evidence of personal responsibility which will arise during the investigation will be released in a clear report, as part of a thorough examination of the factors involved. We are obliged to investigate this incident and what happened prior to it, and it is our intention to fully discharge our responsibility completely.”

Source: David Rosenberg – Arutz Sheva