Motorists pulled over on the sides of highways and roads and pedestrians stopped in their tracks as a siren rang out at 11 am on Monday.
Israelis are also visiting cemeteries and attending remembrance ceremonies across the country. Radio and television networks broadcast programs about battle and loss. The melancholic atmosphere is to end abruptly at sundown, when Independence Day celebrations start.
Since September 2015, a wave of Palestinian attacks has killed 42 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British student.