Israelis on Friday prepared for the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonment, as temperatures are rising to over 40 degrees in the Golan Heights and Lake Kinneret region and 36 degres in Jerusalem.
Meteorologists have predicted the holiday this year to be the hottest in decades.
The entire country grinds almost to a halt for Yom Kippur, Judaism's day of atonement. Businesses, restaurants and offices close, and TV and radio stations go silent. Airports close and buses and trains stop running. Highways and roads become eerily quiet, devoid of vehicles.
Jews traditionally spend the solemn day fasting and asking God for forgiveness at intense prayer services in synagogues. It caps a 10-day period of soul-searching that began with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year holiday.
On Thursday night, 500,000 Jews attended pre Yom Kippur prayers in Jerusalem at the Western Wall, a remnant of the biblical Jewish Temple compound and the holiest site where Jews can pray.
The Israeli military closed crossings with the West Bank for the holiday, which starts on sundown Friday, following ‘’security assessments.’’
This year, the holiday marks 40 years to the 1973 Arab-Israel War, which Israelis call the Yom Kippur War because of the surprise attack launched by the Egyptian and Syrian armies against Israel that year.
The war is etched deep in Israel's collective psyche due to the heavy losses sustained in the fighting and because of the country's lack of preparedness. For Israelis, it is one of the most traumatic events in their history. Personal accounts of Israelis who participated in that war or who were scarred by its occurrence filled newspapers.
The holiday also comes amid the crisis over reports of chemical weapons use in neighboring Syria's civil war. Israel has said it doesn't want to get involved in the fighting but has also warned it will not tolerate chemical weapons reaching violent groups sworn to its destruction, such as the Iranian backed Lebanese Hezbollah group or the al-Qaida affiliates fighting in Syria against the regime.
Following a period of public silence on the issue, several Israeli ministers expressed their support for efforts to dismantle Syria’s chemical stockpile while at the same time warning that Iran is closely observing with its own nuclear development in mind.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a naval ceremony in the northern city of Haifa, saying “what needs to be ensured is that the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons will be dismantled and the world will ensure that anyone who uses weapons of mass destruction will pay a price.”
He stressed that “the message Syria receives will resonate very strongly in Iran” and also said that Israel’s ability to defend itself “is the foundation of our security.”
At the same ceremony, Defence Minister Moshe Ya’lon said “We don’t yet know how the free world will act in light of the massacre in Syria, and we are following developments responsibly,” but that given the “unending storms” in the region, “we must ensure that we navigate the ship with sturdy and safe hands through the stormy waters of the Middle East.”
Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz directly addressed the Russian plan to disarm the Assad regime’s chemical capability, telling the radio of the IDF, Israel’army: “I cannot say that we have full faith, but if this Russian proposal will really remove the chemical weaponry from Syria, first of all, and will then dismantle it then this is a way to end this tragedy and a way to end this threat too.”