Sirens blare as Israel comes to a halt to remember Holocaust victims

At Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of the murderous Nazi aggression that was not sufficiently challenged by Western powers, comparing it to Iran

Israelis came to a halt throughout the country Thursday to observe two minutes of solemn silence as a siren blared, marking the annual remembrance of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

‏People stand still as a two-minutes silence in memory of victims of the Holocaust in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo)

Motorists exited their vehicles and students at schools stood in ceremonies beginning with the 10:00am (0700 GMT) siren.

Outside shops and offices, Israelis stood still, many with heads bowed.

At a Wednesday night ceremony at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of the murderous Nazi aggression that was not sufficiently challenged by Western powers, comparing it to Iran.

“Today, too, there’s an extremist regime that’s threatening us, threatening the peace of the entire world,” Netanyahu said of Iran. “That regime explicitly declares that it intends on destroying us, the Jewish state.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lays a wreath during a ceremony marking the annual Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.

Holocaust survivors lit six torches at the Wednesday memorial to mark the six million Jews massacred by the Nazis during World War II.

People stop and stand in silence on a Jerusalem's downtown street on April 12, 2018.

An hour after the siren, members of the public were to recite names of Holocaust victims in the “Unto Every Person There Is A Name” ceremony at Yad Vashem as well as in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset.