In pictures: Israel marks Yom Kippur

Children play on an empty road during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Jerusalem.Reuters

Israel has been observing the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, when observant Jews atone for the sins of the past year by fasting for 25 hours and praying. Shops are shut and traffic comes to a halt.

An ultra-Orthodox Jew whips another with a leather belt as a symbolic punishment for his sins during the traditional Malkot ceremony, a few hours before the start of Yom Kippur on 17 September 2010 at a synagogue in the central Israeli town of Bet Shemesh.AFP

A series of rituals are performed ahead of the day itself. Here an ultra-Orthodox Jew whips another with a leather belt as a symbolic punishment for his sins during the traditional Malkot ceremony, a few hours before the start of Yom Kippur.

A Jewish settler blows the Shofar horn on the eve of Yom Kippur, near the disputed Ibrahimi mosque, known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, during the weekly Muslim Friday prayer in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron on 17 September 2010.AFP

A Jewish settler blows the Shofar horn on the eve of Yom Kippur, near the disputed Ibrahimi mosque, known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, during the weekly Muslim Friday prayer in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray in front of a plastic pool filled with water and live fish in the ultra-Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, on 16 September 2010, as they perform the Tashlich ritual during which they cast their sins into the water, one day before Yom Kippur.AFP

People pray in front of a plastic pool filled with water and fish in the ultra-Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, as they perform the Tashlich ritual during which they cast their sins into the water.

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman holds a chicken as her son reads a blessing before performing the Kaparot ritual, ahead of the holiday of Yom Kippur, in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv on 15 September 2010.Reuters

A woman holds a chicken as her son reads a blessing before performing the Kaparot ritual in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv. Kaparot is a custom where white chickens are slaughtered in a symbolic gesture of atonement and donated to the poor.