No fewer than 4,000 Hassidic Jews from the Karliner sect attended the selihot penitentiary prayers at the Cave of Machpelah in Hevron on Thursday night, arriving in dozens of buses for the services. 

"The influx of the masses to the cave continues all the time," Ashi Horowitz, the operations officer of the Jewish community maintaining the Old City of Hevron, stated to Arutz Sheva

"The event tonight is part of an increase of tens of thousands of people whom are expected to visit Hevron before Yom Kippur."

Many thousands of Jews flood to Israel's holy sites for selihot prayers, the set of prayers for forgiveness and mercy said during the days leading up to, and between, Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).

Sephardic Jews begin the prayers in the month leading up to the High Holidays, whereas Ashkenazic Jews began the prayers in the week before Rosh Hashanah.