People gather and celebrate the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer on Mount Meron, Israel, April 29, 2021. At least 44 people were killed and 103 injured in a stampede after midnight Thursday at an Israeli festival attended by tens of thousands of people, local media reported. The tragedy happened in Mount Meron in northern Israel, during the festival celebrated every year on the eve of the Jewish holiday Lag BaOmer.Photo:Xinhua

Thousands of Jewish faithful converged on Israel's Mount Meron on Wednesday for an annual pilgrimage, amid tightened safety measures a year after 45 people were crushed to death in a stampede.

Police said that more than 10,000 gathered at Mount Meron for the start of the pilgrimage, which runs until Thursday night.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said his government made a "considerable investment" in new safety measures to ensure there is no repeat of 2021, which was described as the greatest civilian disaster in Israeli history.

The Mount Meron pilgrimage occurs on the Lag BaOmer holiday, when mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews throng the site of the tomb of revered second century rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

On April 30, 2021, a stampede broke out in the male section of the gender-divided site as the size of the crowd turned a narrow passageway into a deadly choke-point. At least 16 children were among those trampled to death. 

Bennett urged worshippers to follow new rules put in place for the event. Among those is a cap of 16,000 pilgrims allowed at the site at any given moment. Tickets must also be acquired in advance.

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service said that it is expecting hundreds of thousands of worshippers to gather around Mount Meron.

Hundreds of medical workers will be there "in light of last year's horrible disaster," it added.

Some 8,000 officers will be on hand to maintain order. Police said they were deploying mounted officers, drones and a helicopter to patrol the site. Police said they would also secure all access roads to the site, as well as the surrounding forest, to prevent unauthorized entries from breaking the cap on numbers.

AFP