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  Date / Time: 9/19/2009 8:56 PM UTC

  Israelis celebrate Jewish New Year
  

  "I am in favor of sober optimism," he told the Yediot Ahronot daily.

  Rosh Hashana, which begins at sundown, begins 10 days of Jewish soul-searching - known as the "Days of Awe" - capped by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The New Year holiday itself is a time for festive meals, which traditionally include fish, wine and an apple dipped in honey to symbolize a sweet new year.

  Israelis flocked to markets on the eve of the holiday to stock up on goods, greeting one another with blessings of a happy new year.

  The high holiday season, which includes the weeklong Sukkoth, or Feast of the Tabernacles, at the beginning of October, provides a time-out from Israel's pressing problems. People generally take off work and spend more time with family during this period.

  Israel's military closed off the West Bank on Friday until midnight Sunday, barring Palestinians from entering Israel, a routine measure during Jewish holidays to deter possible attacks by Palestinian militants.

  Authorities said an exception would be made for men over the age of 50 and women over 45 seeking to enter Jerusalem to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque - Islam's third holiest shrine - on the fourth and final Friday of Ramadan.

  However, witnesses at the Qalandia crossing between the West Bank and Jerusalem said hundreds of Palestinians seeking entry to the city were turned away by Israeli troops.

  Elsewhere along the Israel-West bank divide, Israeli and Palestinian security forces have been cooperating for the first time in time in years, often seen conversing and easing the passage of Palestinians from side to side.

  Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will begin Sunday the Eid al-Fitr, a three-day holiday marking the end of Ramadan and commemorating the revelation of the first verses of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad.

  In Gaza City ahead of the festival, the old market was packed with street merchants hawking their wares and families shopping for jeans, shoes, scarves, sweets and salted fish, traditionally eaten at this time.

  The holiday atmosphere was strained in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade for two years and is still reeling from January's bloodshed.

  "People are psychologically worn out since the war," said Midhad Ihmeid, 45. "Does someone who lost a family member or had his house wrecked want to go and buy new shoes?"

  Salam Haddad, a 34-year-old vendor, said Gaza's economic decline was affecting holiday preparations, and only the network of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border was keeping commerce alive.

  "There's no work here now, so people don't have much money for the holiday," he said.

  Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics released its annual population figures to mark the New Year. It said 7,465,000 people live in Israel, with 75.5 percent of the population Jewish and 20.2 percent Arab. The rest were mostly non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

  Israel's population is relatively young, with 28.4 percent under the age of 14, compared to an average of 17 percent among Western countries, according to the report.

  The annual population growth rate held steady at 1.8 percent. Unlike in previous years, the report indicated that the number of children per Jewish mother increased, while the number of children per Muslim mother decreased.

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