Clocks in Israel turn back as daylight saving time ends

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

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

Daylight saving time will return on March 28, 2025.

The time change coincides with that of the EU, but not with the US, which will switch back on November 3.

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.