200,000 celebrate in Holon's Purim carnival
Israelis take to the streets to celebrate the holiday with traditional carnivals and parades, with the largest being held, as it is every year, in Holon.
Israelis celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim on Sunday, with the grandest festivities taking place in Holon, as has become the norm, with 200,000 revelers taking part.
Holon's carnival (צילום: עידו ארז)
Pictures from Herzliya
The Moscowitz family, Holon residents, came all together, with the father, Shai, having taken a day off work to participate. "I came with my three daughters to see the parade together, and later we'll split up, and they'll continue with their school friends."
Pictures from Holon
The IDF announced earlier in the day that the military closure imposed on the West Bank had been extended to noon.
Tens of thousands also came to celebrate in Ramat Gan and in Herzliya. The carnival in the latter had the theme of Bible stories. 2,500 children came dressed as biblical characters.
Pictures from Ramat Gan
In Hebron, the traditional parade took place without incident, ending at the Cave of the Patriarchs. Amongst those who took part were right-wing activists Itamar Ben Gvir, who came dressed as Elor Azaria, and Bentzi Gopstein, leader of the group Lehava. That carnival took place under heavy security provided by Israeli security forces.
Pictures from Hebron
Some 3,000 came to the central celebration in Eilat, which is suffering from especially bad air pollution due to dust and sand storms. The Ministry for Environmental Protection updated its warning on Sunday that air pollution would be from medium to high throughout the country, especially in the south from the afternoon. In the Center of the country, the air pollution is to be from high to very high, and in the North, the pollution will be high.
Pictures from Eilat
The air quality is to improve starting in the evening.
Itay Blumental, Elisha Ben Kimon and Meir Ohayon contributed to this report.
Motti Kimchi contributed photographs from Holon, the City of Ramat Gan provided photographs from its events and Meir Ohayon contributed photographs from Hebron.
