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Israelis have come to a two-minute standstill to remember fallen soldiers and victims of terror as the country marked Memorial Day, one of the most somber days on its calendar.

Motorists pulled over on the sides of highways and roads and pedestrians stopped in their tracks as a siren rang out at 11 a.m. 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. During that same time, Israeli forces have killed some 244 Palestinians. Israel has identified most of them as attackers.