Israel enters Memorial Day with siren at 8 p.m.

Israel is beginning its commemoration of Memorial Day. Here are the main events planned for this evening:

At 5 p.m., Yad Lebanim, an NGO that represents bereaved families of fallen soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, will hold its own ceremony in Jerusalem.

At 8 p.m., a minute-long siren will be heard throughout the country, followed by an official state ceremony at Jerusalem’s Western Wall attended by President Reuven Rivlin and IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot.

At 8:30 p.m., a tribute event titled “Singing in the Square” will be held in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square in memory of the fallen.

At 9 p.m., the Knesset will hold its annual “Songs for Their Memory” event, in which politicians read excerpts from poems written by and about fallen soldiers and those killed in terror attacks.

The number of Israeli soldiers killed in the line of duty, as well as civilians killed in wars and acts of terror, stands at 23,320, with 116 people added to the list over the past year. Sixty-seven of those were soldiers killed during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.

The number of bereaved families in Israel stands at 16,760.