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Hundreds of buses stretched over miles of winding road were ferrying thousands of worshipers off Mount Meron in northern Israel on Friday after 45 people were killed and some 150 others injured in a crush at a mass Jewish gathering overnight.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison sent his condolences on behalf of the nation to those impacted by the disaster.

"I send Australia's heartfelt condolences to our friends in Israel following the tragic loss of life at Mount Meron in northern Israel, with many more injured," the PM tweeted. "You are in our thoughts as you grieve at this terrible time."

https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1388064505783996424https://twitter.com/RoyalFamily/status/1388165455324581889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Queen Elizabeth also sent a message of condolence to the President of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a "huge disaster," while paramedics described chaotic scenes of teams administering CPR en masse to people, including children, lying breathless on the ground.

Kalanit Taub, a first responder, described a "horrific scene" with "nonstop people to care for."

"I saw 20 plus CPRs ongoing at the same time," Taub told CNN. "Anywhere you looked, you saw another person doing CPR."

In the hours afterward, she said she saw people crying or staring into space, struggling to process what they had seen.

Israeli investigators are examining exactly how the crush happened at the mountain, where worshipers marked the Lag B'Omer holiday, an annual event where participants sing, dance and light fires in homage to second-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai at his burial site.

Israel's health ministry had urged people not to attend the festival, warning of the risk of another coronavirus outbreak. However, case numbers have been low, and Israel has already fully vaccinated more than 58 per cent of its population, so the event was allowed to proceed.

Dov Maisel, vice president of operations of the volunteer-based emergency organisation United Hatzalah, told CNN that around 100,000 people were in attendance, though such numbers aren't unusual for the annual festival. Maisel said up to 400,000 people had attended in past years.

Hundreds of people were pouring into the site at the same time from different directions, leading to a "massive amount of congestion," he said. People tightly packed in a small area had fallen down a staircase and crushed each other, he added.

"Overall they usually control the crowd, but at a certain point at the peak the crowd became too tight," Maisel said. "It was simply tragic and horrific."

Social media video from the site show men and boys crammed into a narrow passageway, which may be the stairway that Maisel refers to, when it suddenly becomes clear that many are struggling to continue walking, being thrown back and forth in waves of the commotion.

Most people hospitalised have been released, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Friday.

Wice Israel, a participant, described to Reuters how there was "no place to move, and people started to fall to the ground, a lot fell to the ground."

Shlomo Katz, another worshiper, told the news agency: "We were going to go inside for the dancing and stuff and all of a sudden we saw paramedics from MADA … running by, like mid-CPR on kids, and then one after the other started coming out of ambulance, and then we understood something's going on here," he said.

Footage from the scene showed dozens of body bags lined up on the ground, and personal items like abandoned shoes and crushed eyeglasses lying scattered on the ground at the scene.

Dozens of ambulances parked in rows, their lights flashing, were on standby to receive the many injured. Authorities said 250 ambulances had been made available to respond. Six helicopters transferred some of the wounded to hospital. Paramedics were seen running all over the area, with stretchers carrying people in need of treatment.

The local police chief told Israeli TV he accepted full responsibility for the incident.

"I take overall responsibility, for good and for bad. I am ready for every eventuality," said Shimon Lavie, Israel Police's northern commander. He said Israel's northern police command had prioritised security and public safety, but he could not explain what caused the stampede.

Lavie commended police officers who tried to help victims before patients were ferried to hospitals in ambulances and by helicopter. "Police were saving people's lives while they were also dealing with this complicated incident," he said.

Lazar Hyman, vice president of United Hatzalah, said it was one of the worst tragedies that he had ever experienced. "I have not seen anything like this since I entered into the field of emergency medicine back in 2000," said Hyman.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the nation was praying for the injured in the "huge disaster."

"I want to strengthen the hand of those carrying out rescue efforts and who are operating on site," Netanyahu tweeted.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Jews — many of them ultra-Orthodox — flock to Bar Yochai's tomb site on Mount Meron, which lies in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel, about 40 kilometres northeast of the city of Haifa. Bar Yochai's book 'The Zohar' is the foundation of Jewish mysticism.

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India has set another global record with 386,452 daily coronavirus cases.

The Health Ministry on Friday also reported 3,498 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 208,330. Experts believe both figures are an undercount, but it's unclear by how much.

India's pandemic response has been marred by insufficient data. An online appeal — signed by over 350 scientists Friday afternoon — asks the government to release data about the sequencing of virus variants, testing, recovered patients and how people were responding to vaccines.

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The appeal says the "granular" data on testing was inaccessible to non-government experts and some government experts too.

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India has set a daily global record for more than a week with an average of nearly 350,000 infections. Daily deaths have nearly tripled in the past three weeks, reflecting the intensity of the latest surge.

Meanwhile, families continued to flood social media and messaging apps with pleas for help: oxygen, beds, medicines, intensive care units and wood for funeral pyres.

India has reported more than 18.7 million cases since the start of the pandemic, second only to the United States. Globally, total deaths rank fourth.

Japan said Friday it will send 300 ventilators and 300 oxygen concentrators in response to the Indian government request. "Japan stands with India, our friend and partner," the Foreign Ministry said.

France, Germany, Ireland and Australia have also promised help, and Russia sent two aircraft carrying oxygen generating equipment. The Indian air force also airlifted oxygen containers from Singapore, Dubai and Bangkok.

Chinese state media said the first batch of 25,000 oxygen concentrators pledged by Beijing to India also arrived Friday. There was no immediate comment by India but it could be a step in thawing tensions between the two countries.

The reports said China has already sent 5,000 ventilators and 21,000 oxygen generators to India.

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A new relaxation of Western Australia's COVID-19 restrictions have come in to place as of midnight (2am AEST) but Premier Mark McGowan is urging the community to stay vigilant.

"It's about wearing a mask, it's about doing the right thing, it's about ensuring you follow all the rules and precautions we are putting in place," he said.

He said the new level of restrictions will remain in place for the next week.

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Masks will remain mandatory indoors and on public transport in the WA capital and neighbouring Peel region but many other restrictions will be significantly eased as planned.

Cafes and restaurants will return to "pretty much business as usual" but hospitality venues must comply with either the two-square-metre rule or 75 per cent capacity; nightclubs can reopen but will be forced to comply with the four-square-metre rule.

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Outdoor community sport can return with spectators and the local AFL derby at Perth Stadium on Sunday can host a 75 per cent crowd. Meanwhile, indoor fitness venues, dance studios and gyms can all reopen too, with mask requirements.

Gatherings inside at home will be limited to 30 people, funerals can be enlarged to 200 guests and outdoor gatherings could go ahead for up to 500 people without a COVID-19 event plan.

All elective surgeries will resume and patient visit restrictions have been eased slightly.

While there are no new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 in the state today, there was a trans-Tasman bubble glitch.

A passenger on board an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Perth was discovered to be "ineligible for quarantine-free travel to Australia".

It is understood a man flew from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands to Auckland on Thursday before taking the 10.30am flight to Perth on Friday.

New Zealand has a one-way bubble system with the Cook Islands, meaning people aren't require to isolate on arrival but they are required to stay in NZ for at least 14 days before transiting to another country, which didn't happen in this case.

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It's understood the airline realised the breach and reported it to authorities about an hour into the flight.

"We are working with the relevant authorities on both sides of the Tasman and will follow their guidance," Air New Zealand said in a statement.

"The next steps for this passenger will be determined by the Western Australia authorities."

Since the start of the snap three-day lockdown across the WA capital and neighbouring region last week, there have been more than 53,000 coronavirus tests conducted across Western Australia in what Mr McGowan called "a great result".

"People have taken it seriously," he said.

However, he urged people with symptoms to continue to come forward, noting that WA is still in the incubation period since the latest outbreak, sparked by an infectious Victorian man who spent five days travelling around Perth and Peel.

Western Australia has halved the number of returned overseas travellers coming into the state this month as it grapples with its latest outbreak and Mr McGowan has flagged that could become a more permanent reduction.

The Premiere was forced to defended his decision last week to send Perth and Peel into a snap three-day lockdown, saying it remained preferable to months of lower-grade restrictions.

"Lockdowns are a method that does help prevent the spread of the virus very quickly, and it gets the matter over with as quickly as we possibly can," he said.

"The Western Australia model has been we try and prevent the virus from coming in, with borders. If we have any spread of the virus we try and kill it quickly. That's a far better model than allowing the virus to linger in the community."

He claimed that Western Australia had done "better than any other state in Australia" at keeping the virus out and he would continue to pursue that strategy.

He pointed to the outbreak on Sydney's Northern Beaches as an example of an outbreak where extended measures restricted residents' movement and cost the economy.