2 dead, 150 injured after bleacher collapse at West Bank synagogue


At least two people were killed and more than 150 injured on Sunday after a bleacher collapsed at an unfinished ultra-Orthodox synagogue in the West Bank, Israeli medics said.
The incident took place in the Givat Zeev settlement during evening prayers, ahead of the Shavuot holiday. Israeli medics said the dead are a 12-year-old boy and a man in his 50s.
Deddi Simhi, head of Israel Fire and Rescue, told Israel's Channel 12 the five-story synagogue "is not finished. It doesn't even have a permit for occupancy, and therefore let alone holding events in it." The chief of Jerusalem's police department said the collapse was caused by "negligence" and expects arrests will be made.
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Last month, 45 ultra-Orthodox Jews were killed in a stampede during a religious celebration in northern Israel. The event brought tens of thousands of people to Mount Meron, an area that isn't able to contain such a large crowd.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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