Kan News on Wednesday evening published an incriminating report on the absence of police officers at Gesher Dov prior to the disaster.

Four police officers were stationed at Gesher Dov, whose job it was to ensure the safety of the visitors at the site. But as one of the police officers testified to the state commission of inquiry into the Meron disaster, at the critical moments when the disaster occurred, they were on a break, and there were no backup police officers at the site.

Twenty-one minutes before midnight, a little more than an hour before the disaster, the four police officers were released for a break and did not return.

In video footage released for the first time by Kan, police officer Tzlil Hanuni is heard testifying to the members of the commission. “I was posted by the passageway – where they fell, where the steps were – I was right above the steps.”

Tzlil continued that he and the other three officers left Gesher Dov for a break. He said that he doesn’t remember his commander giving them a time limit for their break. “I don’t remember that he set a time for us. He told us to take a few minutes to freshen up and we went down to the command room.”

The commander, Inspector Assaf Sheikh, left Gesher Dov completely unguarded and didn’t bother calling in replacements.

The investigative committee sent a warning letter to Sheikh for not ensuring the police officers returned to their positions, stating that “this was among the significant factors for the loss of control over the passageway.”

Hanuni was asked by the committee if anything would have been different if the police officers had been at their posts when the disaster occurred. He answered: “I don’t know how to tell you in retrospect, but anything is possible. It might have helped and it might not have. The first thought that crossed my mind was that if I had been there I might have been injured because I was standing right there. People would have simply fallen on top of me. That’s the only thing that went through my head – that it was mazal that I was on a break.”

Last week, Kan News revealed recordings of the police officers at Dov Gesher calling for backup in the hours before the disaster – requests that went unheeded.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)