May 2 (UPI) -- Israelis came to a standstill Thursday for Holocaust Remembrance Day to honor 6 million Jewish people who were killed during World War II.
Sirens wailed throughout the country for 2 minutes as vehicles stopped on the roads and Israelis rose to their feet to observe the solemn occasion.
In a ceremony at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum, attendees lit candles and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke, criticizing Iran.
Israel "will not present its neck for the slaughter in the face of threats of destruction," he said.
Netanyahu also read a poem his father-in-law, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, wrote in 1941 about losing touch with his family, who died during the Holocaust.
Lawmakers in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, read aloud the names of their family members killed in the Holocaust and lit six candles to represent the 6 million dead.
Hours before the official observance began at sundown, a Tel Aviv University study said there was "an increase in almost all forms of anti-Semitic manifestations, in the public space as well as the private one" in 2018 and 2019. The report referenced a shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue last year that killed 11.