Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and children gather outside the home of late rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, ahead of his funeral in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, on March 20, 2022. Kanievsky, 94, a key figure among the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, died in Israel on March 18, 2022. Photo: AFP

An estimated three quarters of a million ultra-Orthodox Jews packed the Israeli city of Bnei Brak for the funeral Sunday of influential rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, known to followers as the "Prince of Torah."

Authorities had voiced fears of disaster from massive overcrowding as a sea of men and boys in black suits filled streets, sidewalks and balconies in the city near Tel Aviv to mourn the Belarusian-born Kanievsky, who died Friday aged 94. 

A separate women's section had been created ahead of the event that the Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue agency estimated would be one of the biggest gatherings in "Israel history."

After Kanievsky was buried at a Bnei Brak cemetery, the MDA said the funeral procession had been completed with "no serious incidents."

Police put the crowd at 750,000-strong, roughly 8 percent of the Israeli population.

It included Shlomo Lugassi, who said he had earlier unsuccessfully tried to push his way through the masses to reach the late rabbi's apartment.

"I cried when I heard he was dead," the 41-year-old told AFP ahead of the burial. 

Thousands of police and paramilitary officers as well as volunteers were deployed to provide security for the funeral held 11 months after a disaster at Mount Meron, an ultra-Orthodox pilgrimage site where 45 people died in a stampede.

"The trauma of the Meron disaster is still fresh for all of us," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had warned before his weekly cabinet on Sunday.

AFP