At the sound of sirens, the Israelis stood for a minute of silence, during which traffic was paralyzed on the roads, while the Israeli flags were at half-mast.
According to data issued by the Ministry of Defense annually on the occasion of this day, the total number of members of the army, police and other security forces who have been killed while on duty has reached 24,068 since 1860, the year that Israel considers to have witnessed the first Israeli-Palestinian conflict when Jews established the first neighborhood outside the town walls Old Jerusalem.
For its part, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimated that 4,216 civilians were killed in attacks.
The sirens sounded again Wednesday morning at 11:00 (08:00 GMT) for two minutes, marking the start of a series of ceremonies at military cemeteries in Israel.
On Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with families of soldiers killed in the line of duty.
At the end of this day, the Israelis will commemorate as of Wednesday evening (the day in Judaism begins at sunset and not at sunrise) the anniversary of the establishment of the Israeli state on May 14, 1948, which falls this year according to the fifth Hebrew calendar. As for the Palestinians, they commemorate the Nakba Day on May 15 of every year.
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