that would have on those the cars of 19. at least 44 people are killed in a stampede at a religious festival in israel emergency rescue services describe it as a national catastrophe. play watching al-jazeera live from doha with me fully back to bill also ahead desperately needed foreign aid arrives in india as a country registers another record number of coronavirus cases. i'm elizabeth cohen i'm outside an oxygen supply in new delhi where desperate people whose relatives a sick are lining up in the hopes of buying the life saving gas also ahead u.s.

president joe biden hits the road to promote his ambitious plan to rebuild the economy as he mocks 100 days in office. and trouble at the border between kyrgyzstan and fighting leave several dead and injured. thank you for joining us a stampede at a religious festival in northern israel has killed at least 44 people the crash happened at a gathering of tens of thousands of her off the docks jews on mount meron our correspondent gary fossett is at the scene and will update us shortly but 1st this report from santa hire out. emergency services rushed to the scene where tens of thousands of cultural roots jews had gathered for the largo my annual pilgrimage which started off as an all night gathering of prayer and dance at the bonfire

festival ended with these chaotic scenes. bodies of those killed in a stampede are lined up hundreds of people are in the jute provided. those with. 200. says another cycle of care units helicopters to the scene next to transform evacuees those were injured and killed to the hosts so it's considered to be one of the holiest sites for jews the tomb of the 2nd century say drive by shimon by your choice what brings the faithful here we're going to say more than 650 buses it brought in people from across the country making it the lawn just public gathering in israel since a pandemic started suddenly saw paramedics from our them whatever running by. like need c.p.r. on a kids and then one after the other start coming on ambulances and then we understood like something's going on here. private bonfires that mound their own were banned

last year due to coronavirus restrictions the lockdown measures were easiest year after israel's rocky cave of 19 vaccination program has seen more than 50 percent of the population fully vaccinated. police say they've arrested 2 people for disrupting offices efforts to keep order at the site and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has described the stampede as a heavy disaster. al-jazeera. as you heard the festival is held at one of the holiest sites for jews tens or thousands of author docs jews normally make the pilgrimage to mount meron each year for light bomber it was largely cancelled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic on thursday official said they were already overwhelmed by the huge crowds organizers have told local media they estimate between 102200000 people had arrived by thursday night with more due to turn up on friday let's go live to paris harry fawcett who joins us from the

scene on mount meron so harry any more details as to what exactly happened that caused this tragic event. well some are emerging the prime minister's spokesman has been tweeting about it saying that it was the overcrowding that led to a stampede which in turn led to the partial collapse of a structure that people were standing on so that is the closest thing we've had to sort of an official proximate cause of what took place but of course there are much wider questions being asked about the nature of all this as well briefly just just let me tell you where i am we're on a road heading into the site itself and there have been buses after buses and police vehicles and emergency vehicles coming down here still parts of those that huge crowd still struggling no way out of the at the event itself this is the road up here that that leads to the events of the. to the tomb of the 2nd century rabbi

which is being which is that the the center of this celebrate 3 event every year and we're still seeing members of that more than a $100000.00 crowd being transported away that's what all these buses are here to do but as i say there are some very significant questions as to why so many people were again allowed into such a small space crowding together in this way there have been warnings in the past about the access points especially to get out once people and there are questions as to whether the police were there in sufficient numbers whether too much. or agency or 30 was given if it's of the rabbinical sects who are organizing the event itself and so there are calls now for a commission of inquiry aside from obviously the investigation that is underway by the police but a wider inquiry which will touch on all sorts of very sensitive things about how

the ultra-orthodox communities in israel are. given levels of autonomy whether the government is not sufficiently. confident or indeed wants to intervene even on issues very critical issues of safety we spoke to one person i asked him i want to snooze there last night and i asked him you've been here many times have you ever felt unsafe before he said yes every time and it is a miracle nothing like this had happened before it is quite extraordinary the images we've been seeing harry of. so many people crammed together in this event it's an annual gathering as you said but i understand that there'd been warnings from israeli health officials that this year it could become a cold 1900 and. scaled down had yet it's when the head there and i guess a lot of people wandering as you said who will be blamed ultimately for this

tragedy. yes i mean when we spoke to one group of young men looking pretty scarred by the event in a car on their way back home and they said it was a crime in access by the police that the police had blocked off. a way out another man i spoke to said that it was a lack of communication and organization and they couldn't really pin it down to any one person being blamed but as you say yes there were real concerns about just on the sheer crowd size of the under-resourced nature in the small nature of this site but concerns about the current situation we're in with a pandemic as you heard in that report a huge number of people in israel have been vaccinated but is a low proportion within the ultra orthodox community and yet there were real. calls for for this to be limited and yet the government allowed it to go ahead there was there were various press releases put out there were briefings given by

police and by authorities saying that you know safety was being looked after they were giving a limit to the number of people who were out in the very center of the celebrations but this is a national park there was stages set up by different sects in different places. huge numbers yet again were allowed to come in and partly because you may be because last year it wasn't possible to do it in this fashion because of the much more severe coded 1000 restrictions this year there was this real sense of release the next old station and crowding together in a way which we've seen many times which is part of this event and which has itself it seems of this terrible tragedy harry thank you very much for that is there is harry fawcett reporting live from mount meron in northern israel. the furnace shipment of emergency supplies from the u.s. has arrived in india to help it battle spiralling coronavirus infections and deaths

it landed in new delhi on friday and includes hundreds of oxygen cylinders and regulates his the u.s. great surprise with more than $100000000.00 to meet what it calls the health needs of the indian people the number of infections across the country resham another record high in the last 24 hours let's get an update from india correspondent elizabeth cohen who is in new delhi so aid including much needed oxygen finally arriving in india liz tell us about where you offer us this morning and what's happening. hello finally we have an obscene supply when family members whose relative was sick a lining now in the hopes of buying the gas they are here because they can't get their family members admitted to hospital because hospitals are full there are some incredibly terms seems here earlier people were screaming because someone had jumped the line the situation is so bad in the capital that people are continuing

to die because they can't get beds and they can't get oxygen that is why the international aid that surviving is so very important the 1st of the $100000000.00 worth of aid from the u.s. touched down in new delhi on friday the military plane was carrying hundreds of oxygen generation all the hospital equipment and a 1000000 tests now the u.s. has said that this aid will keep flowing over the next week 40 countries are sending hundreds of oxygen generation plants thousands of concentrators 10000 oxygen cylinders 17 cryogenic tanks the u.s. is also sending doses all vaccines and the role men the role materials needed to manufacture vaccines that's as many states in india now including delhi including the worst affected maharashtra say they don't have enough vaccines to expand the program on saturday when all everyone over the age of 18 was supposed to be

eligible for the vaccine and the army is stepping in now to help by opening up its own its hospitals. this follows a mission between the army chief and prime minister met in the morning on thursday and the army chief m.m. not alvin a said that people needing hospitalisation can approach hospitals now states are also converting stadiums public spaces wedding and banquet halls to make sure the facilities but the problem is the sheer number of cases in the country right now nearly 400000 every single day and the health experts saying around 15 percent of people need hospitalization that just aren't enough facilities. credit or am i completely overwhelmed the southern state of has set aside one square kilometer and its capital bengal luden now for open cremations its i.c.u. beds are full it's cremin tory arms just like here in the capital

a full thank you very much for that update elizabeth browning live for us there in new delhi. still ahead on al-jazeera protests against her decision to delay palestine's for a spot of entry elections in 15 years and we'll look at why the survival of thousands of elephants is being threatened by an avocado farm in kenya. hello there nice to see you depending on where you are in europe you either need the rain jackets or the sunglasses 1st let's go over that precipitation story will come back to this area for saturday but right now let's talk about northern spain into the south of france into italy we've got somewhat weather on deck for friday

also an outbreak of rain towards ukraine belarus and russia but returning to that saturday picture because we do run the real risk of seeing some severe storms pop up in this area and we've also got a helping of snow for the alps over the weekend temperature is the other big one it's talk about so athens 28 degrees on saturday had away from the agency into the eastern med and you had. were up to 37 degrees on monday well above average also dialing up the heat for egypt as 140 degrees that's a temperature that you would typically see in june now this temperature 38 in tripoli remember that for a cycle come back to it but in the meantime we have a sandstorm running through the western sahara so timbuktu you will get into this sandstorm and look at that temperature in tripoli $33.00 degrees that's because we introduce some clouds and rain into the picture.

it's a very bleak picture for a lot of americans out there white supremacy impacts all of our issues you're putting more money into the hands of someone 1st taking money out of the hands of other workers federal goes to their camp it becomes a us versus them this is a deal about constraining your nuclear program the bottom line the big questions on out is there we know what's happening in our region we know how to get the playfield that others can off the fires are still going on the way they tell the story is what can make a difference. the all. the way. you're watching al-jazeera live from doha

a reminder on main stories said least 44 people have been killed and more than 150 injured in a stampede at a religious festival in northern israel it happened in mount meron where up 220-0000 ultra orthodox jews had gathered it's the 1st shipment of emergency supplies from the u.s. has arrived in india to help it fight spiraling coronavirus infections and deaths a number of infections reach another record high in the last 24 hours with more than 308006000 cases and 3500 guests. u.s. president joe biden has held a drivin rally in the state of georgia to mock his 100th day in office they affect him on his address to congress on thursday he touted what his administration has achieved so far and also repeated his promises to invests trillions of dollars in

jobs infrastructure and education. john about 100 days left to tell you i've never been more optimistic about the future of america america's on the move again we're choosing hope over fair truth over lies light over darkness or working for work again we're dreaming again we're discovering again we're leading the world again and you have democracy could deliver for the people. on to has more from washington. well he's got to sell his vision of america to the american people and that's essentially what he started to do this evening with this rally in duluth georgia just wrapped up his rally there in the last half hour or so biden really just repeated a lot of the same things that he said in his address to congress 24 hours ago but just a bit of a shorter version of it but he was essentially trying to sell his vision of america

to the american people and that's why he went to the state of georgia make no mistake that was not by coincidence the state of georgia was critical in this last election because as you might recall it was 2 senate runoff races in georgia that were both won by the democrats that essentially gave control of the senate to the democratic party divided senate 5050 but democrats essentially control it because a harris vice president is a type breaking vote so this is what he was trying to do he's got a big vision for america that he laid out to congress the night before and now he was out there basically trying to tell the american people and specifically people in georgia get behind this plan push your senators push your congress people to support this because i need your help getting this through congress. gunfire has been reported overnight on the southern border between karega sun and hours after a cease fire agreement. caregivers

health authorities say 13 people have been killed in fighting since wednesday to jiko authorities have not reported any casualties sissie heaviest fighting along the disputed borders in the is the violence began over a water reservoir that both central asian countries claim as their own. is a human rights lawyer an associate professor of human rights at the university of southern california he explains what led to tension at the border. it is the worst escalation that we've seen in a long time and it seems to come down to both sides seem intent on marking their territory you have the security services in to stand which are famously nontransparent if you can stand a very authoritarian state and then you have also the border guards in kyrgyzstan increasingly coming to blows received some video of on of arms being distributed to the population so we have some really worrying signs that the negotiation process

that's completely broken down there's a lot of hot rhetoric going going back and forth this is one of the last undefined frontiers in the post soviet region in central asia when you look at this part of the map this is the they're gonna valley where it was back at stanford you can stand in kyrgyzstan also detail around one another it's a very complicated ethnic patchwork of course you know you can't place blame on the fact that there are no clear geographic markers between the borders between the the kirghiz and the tajik side so that that's just sort of geographic confusion you could say there's also tend to be upstream on the water on the rivers and have better access typically to water. downstream access to bet less or access to water and these are fundamental rights but you know in addition to those things you have to periphery southern kyrgyzstan and northern to stand there are just about as far as you can possibly get away from the capital cities of each of those countries and i think the residents of those areas those border communities are in economically depressed regions and they do not feel heard or respected very much by the central

capitals. thousands of people on both sides of the thailand's myanma border are preparing to flee their homes as fighting between armed ethnic groups and the military escalates corrent state has recently seen some of the worst fighting since the military coup in myanmar in february hundreds have a ready left the region in recent days and thousands more want to join them there are also reports of a strike for the north in the chain states is monitoring developments from thailand's capital bangkok. those who are in the areas of the where these air attacks have taken place started to flee toward the border and now we know at least according to a korean organization in myanmar saying that about $9000.00 they say have gathered toward the thai border having crossed just yet because they're trying to get out of the these air attacks that have really stepped up since we saw that brazen early morning attack along

a check added outpost of myanmar army outpost right along the border with thailand could even see this attack happening from the thai side of the border you know it's a very convoluted situation when you look at the armed ethnic groups inside myanmar kitchen is a different one from the korean held area that we were just talking about this is for the north that's on the korean is on the eastern side along the border with thailand up in the north kitchen similar situation they have been fighting for a very long time for more autonomy from the central government and office and now more recently from the joint and they have also like the current fighters have been pushing against any type of infringement on their territory as they see from the myanmar army they have been fighting back and they have also been facing airstrikes like the caribbean army has but what's interesting up there too a little bit more so than the current held areas up and the kid to the chin area they are still protesting they are still going out to the streets despite this uptick in violence against the military between the military they are still going

out on the streets and protesting against the agenda palestine's 1st actions in 15 years have been postponed they were due to be house next month but present mahmoud abbas has delayed the vote because of a dispute with israel over voting in occupied east jerusalem. porous from the occupied west back. a day before the electoral campaign was to start president mahmoud abbas put the palestinian elections on hold he's blaming israel for uncertainty whether people in occupied east jerusalem would be able to participate in the vote. once they say yes we will hold elections to more as long as we were free to go to the polls will campaign and whoever wins wins this is a democracy we believe in a. rival palestinian factions fattah hand hamas had agreed in january to hold the 1st parliamentary and presidential elections in 15 years but differences soon

emerged. how matters rejected the election today saying it will harm palestinian interests in previous elections is really allowed a few 1000 palestinians to vote in israeli controlled post offices in east jerusalem this time israeli officials say they don't have a government to approve the palestinian request you have a instead of israeli post office locations that means as i remove on the ground and try to prevent them by force which is not a bad thing but this internet and particular means that we have to be ready for some kind of a political confrontation with israel which my mother doesn't want palestinians haven't been to the polls in 15 years and are eager to have elections that could restore national unity and fight corruption if we wanted to hold elections we would have found a way even if we smuggle palestinians from jerusalem to ramallah it's easy to find

excuses he doesn't see of us and become a real under occupation what can we do if it were up to us we would love to have elections. it's really bad as a young 21 year old palestinian i've never felt that i had freedom to voice my opinion or be involved in the political system. ever record number of 36 electoral lists have signed up for the elections well some say it shows how eager tell us in ian's our 1st change others say it threatens a bass's authority senior leaders have split from fatah means slate and plan to run separately. some of the candidates who rejected today have taken to the streets of ramallah to protest the bass's decision polls suggest that the majority of palestinians think it's important to have elections and people here think that the president is using jerusalem as an excuse to delay holding them both as the factions would work towards forming

a national unity government but that might not be enough. to quote the anger in the streets into. the occupied west bank. a south korean activist has sent giant balloons carrying half a 1000000 propaganda leaflets across the border to north korea the frys condemned the government headed by kim jong un in the north box on hack risks up to 3 years in prison for the move which is considered a criminal offense critics accuse soul of sacrificing freedom of expression in an effort to improve ties with pyongyang scott a rob mcbride has more from seoul. the group responsible for this launch say they released a total of 10 large balloons from 2 locations close to the d.m.z. separating north and south korea carrying they say up to hearth a 1000000 leaflets condemning north korea and describing the leader kim jong un as a nuclear lunatic now these launches always enraged north korea who described the

defectors who released these leaflets as human scum and holding the south korean government responsible for their actions in fact it was a similar releases last summer which led to north korea cutting off a communications with the south going as far as destroying a liaison office that had been set up to try to establish better relations the south korean government conscious of how north korea response has taken measures to try to prevent these actions by these defectors going as far as passing a law last december that now makes it illegal act to release these leaflets punishable by up to 3 years in prison that in turn has been criticized by defectors who say it infringes on their rights of free speech here in south korea the south korean government says after this latest launch it will be taking appropriate action. a community of math i heard is in kenya is fighting to protect its grazing land their livelihoods from an agricultural company conservationists here the

company plans to build a potentially lucrative of a cattle farm that would be disastrous for elephants and all wild via tourism markham way of reports and then near the town of. the thousands of years people have been herding livestock on the plains around mount kilimanjaro. and they've been teaming with wildlife for even longer. tourists come here to see it. the shan can any guide them when he's not with his cows his community of messiah herders agreed with the government that this area should be reserved for open grazing and wildlife and so he's alarmed that some of it's been fenced off for farming crops you know we're moving from place to a not of this is so that this land now it's for one person with forest in the muscle. we see very long defined thing stopping just long.

the land available for nomadic grazing here in kenya has been shrinking ever since colonialism the farmers are fenced off just under a square kilometer of land conservationists say it's followed a series of irregular decisions by the relevant authorities and they say many more investors are waiting to see if this farm will be allowed to continue and if it is they say many more tracks of land will be fenced off and that will be devastating for the herders and for the wildlife within the fence a company called killie are very fresh plans to grow for cargoes for export and other crops it belongs to some agricultural investors from the capital nairobi 200 kilometers away so it's not. the farm manager jerry myself who's from this area also owns some shares i can see the fish is very bright as you can see which was a sign us agricultural land now these are not like you have a carbon tax system that long with the activity of other. people how to transform

themselves from their traditional way of life to modern life danielle if somebody says the land here isn't idle you work for a conservation group he says thousands of tourism jobs depend on the wildlife and the survival of about 2000 and a frontier depends on a corridor or the green area connecting to wildlife preserves the blue lines show their tracks and the farmer sits in the middle of them it's not the 1st farm here but he says he. in the flood gates to many more is interfering with the whole system because we do the community. might collapse the families in our own place because disadvantaged areas where you can do funny without interfering with their lunches and environmental tribunals would it kill each other to stop the farm. says it's papers are in order and it's appealing the decision many of kenya's 13000000

herders the poor those living in farming communities towns and cities. says if they lose the last of their past years they'll lose everything malcolm webb al-jazeera kenya. there again i'm fully back to deal with the headlines on our at least 44 people have been killed and more than 150 injured in a stampede out of religious festival in northern israel it happened in mount meron where up 220-0000. arafat's side has more.