Israeli Jews were busy on Thursday making last-minute preparations for Passover on Friday. In ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem, residents burned all remnants of leavened foods in accordance with the prohibition on eating or possessing "hametz" (leavened foods), during Passover. After cleaning their houses of all hametz, the observant either use special dishes or bring their kitchen utensils and metal dishes to a public place to wash them in boiling water and make them kosher for the holiday. "During the year we use all our utensils to eat ... so they have to be made clean [for Pesach]. That is what is happening here, to see to it that there is no part of any bread left on one of the silver or metal utensils we use in order to eat," said Haim Eilata. In Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, people were doing final food shopping under heightened security. A police spokesperson said thousands of security forces will be deployed across Israel and Jerusalem ahead and during the week-long Jewish holiday. High alerts have become a common practice by Israeli security forces ahead of major Jewish and Muslim holidays, and are intensified this Passover due to the six-month long wave of Palestinian terror.
