Sirens sound as Israel honours six million Jews killed by Nazis

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Israel came to a standstill on Tuesday as sirens sounded across the country in tribute to the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II.

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At 10:00 am local time (0700 GMT), Israel observed a two-minute silence, with traffic coming to a halt and the rhythm of everyday life suspended in a symbolic act of remembrance for those who perished.

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The commemoration, held each year in April or May in accordance with the Hebrew calendar, is separate from International Holocaust Remembrance Day which is marked on January 27.

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This year’s commemoration comes amid a fragile two-week ceasefire with Iran after a deadly war that began on February 28, when a joint US-Israeli air attack killed Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

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Despite the ceasefire, Israel remains engaged in deadly combat with Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militants in south Lebanon, even as separate talks are scheduled to take place between Israeli and Lebanese officials later Tuesday in Washington.

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Official ceremonies began on Monday evening with a state event at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, attended by senior officials.

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“We delivered the heaviest blow in that (Iran) regime’s history. It stands weaker than ever before,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the Yad Vashem ceremony.

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“For two and a half years, we have been systematically crushing the Iranian axis of evil … in Gaza … in Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria and Yemen,” he said, using the biblical term for the occupied West Bank.

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“Had we not acted, names like Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan and Parchin might have become synonymous with horror — like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek and Sobibor,” Netanyahu said, comparing Iran’s nuclear sites to Nazi-era extermination camps.

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In a separate statement on Monday marking the occasion, Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir also vowed to thwart any threat facing the country.

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“On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day the message from here is clear and unequivocal: we will not be deterred! We will look every threat in the eye and eliminate it in advance,” Zamir said.

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Memorial events will take place across the country on Tuesday.

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Officials say that around 111,000 survivors of Nazi persecution still live in Israel, down from last year’s recorded number of 120,507.

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AFP

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