Vast crowds have descended on Bnei Brak today for the funeral of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky.

Up to a million mourners are expected in the city east of Tel Aviv, for one of the largest events in Israel’s history.

The 94-year-old leader of the Lithuanian Strictly Orthodox community had died on Friday.

Mourners streaming into Bnei Brak have been packed into the city’s narrow streets.

Emergency response organisation Magen David Adom have deployed hundreds of paramedics in anticipation of the size and density of the crowd.

The precautions come with memories still all too fresh of the stampede at Mount Meron less than a year ago, in which 45 people died as a vast Orthodox Jewish crowd gathered on Lag B’Omer.

Speaking to the Israeli cabinet this morning, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said: “The funeral is a mass event, and we must make sure that it does not end – God forbid – in a mass disaster. I call on those attending not to crowd and squeeze together.”

He added: “The trauma of the Meron disaster is still fresh for all of us. This tragedy must not be repeated.”

Rabbi Kanievsky, who had lived in a simple flat in Bnei Brak, was revered for his learning around the world.

His backing for social distancing measures and vaccinations had been critical in ensuring the Strictly Orthodox community complied with anti-Covid measures.