Shim Bar Yochai

Turkey has extended condolences to the Israeli government and people over the deadly stampede in northern Israel.

"We have received the news with sadness that many people lost their lives as a result of a stampede during a religious festival ceremony on Mount Meron in northern Israel," read a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry on April 30.

At least 44 people were crushed to death at an over-crowded religious bonfire festival in Israel on April 30, medics said, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a "heavy disaster".