JERUSALEM, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - Israel came to a standstill on Thursday as the country marked Yom Kippur -- the Day of Atonement -- the most sacred observance in the Jewish calendar.

Public transport and air traffic stopped, as did television and radio programming, while schools and offices -- including the Tel Aviv stock exchange -- were closed. Pedestrians, skaters and cyclists took over the car-free roads.

Police stepped up security measures and the military shut down the Israeli occupied West Bank.

In ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, men clad in long coats and huge black fur hats packed synagogues and religious schools.

Yom Kippur is devoted to fasting and prayer. It began at sundown on Wednesday and was to end on Thursday evening.

On Yom Kippur, Jews ask God to pardon their sins committed during the previous year. It is also on Yom Kippur that God judges Jews and determines their destiny, deciding who will live and who will die.

At the end of Yom Kippur, prayers are offered at Judaism's most sacred place, the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Thursday's observance also marked the anniversary of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war which cost the lives of 2,700 Israelis and which continues to haunt the Jewish state.

While Israel eventually pushed back the Syrian and Egyptian forces, the 19-day war broke the myth of Israel's military strength.

Declassified documents published on Wednesday highlighted just how much Israel had underestimated the strength of its Arab foes amid deep divisions among its military and political establishment.