Clocks in Israel turn back an hour as daylight saving time ends

Israel turns its clocks back by one hour overnight Saturday-Sunday, marking the end of daylight saving time for the year.

At 2 a.m. early Sunday, Israel’s clocks wind back to 1 a.m. again with many gaining an extra hour of sleep.

The clock change this year comes as Israel wages war against Hamas, amid national mourning following the brutal October 7 onslaught by the terror group that killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and saw more than 230 people taken hostage in Gaza.

Daylight saving time will return on March 29, 2024.

The time change coincides with that of the EU, but not with the US, which will switch back on November 5.

Israel will also be on a different time than the Palestinian Authority for 24 hours, with the PA having switched between Friday and Saturday night.

In 2013, the Knesset passed legislation extending daylight saving time from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.

Before that, standard time would begin the Saturday night before Yom Kippur, so that the day’s fast, which is pegged to nightfall, would end — but also begin — an hour “earlier.”

Because the Hebrew calendar is lunar, Yom Kippur can fall between mid-September and mid-October, which used to mean that Israelis returned to standard time as much as a month and a half before most other countries.

As a result, the issue of the seasonal time transition became contentious and was caught up in political tensions between religious and secular parties before the 2013 change was implemented.