Data shows post-Oct. 7 emigration surge from Israel, which has since stabilized

The number of Israelis who permanently left Israel spiked after Hamas’s October 7 massacre and the ensuing outbreak of war in Gaza but dropped in the following months and has now stabilized, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics cited by Channel 12 news.

The figures showed a huge spike in emigration during October 2023, the month when Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war.

About 12,300 Israelis left the country that month and had not returned as of June 2024. This compared to only 3,200 who left permanently the year before— a 285 percent increase.

The outflow slowed in the following months, with about 30,000 Israelis leaving the country permanently between November 2023 and March 2024, representing a 14% decrease from the same period the previous year.

On the other hand, data showed that 21% fewer Israelis returned from abroad, with about 8,900 moving back to Israel between October 2023 and March 2024, compared to about 11,200 the previous year.

Given the lower figure, however, there was no noticeable dip in the number of Israelis returning home in October 2023.

While emigration from Israel has been lower during the war than it was during the same time last year, it was significantly higher in the months before the war broke out than it had been during the same time the year before.

Almost twice as many Israelis (about 34,500) permanently left the country between July and October 2023 than had done so in the same period in 2022 (about 17,800).

The figures did not include people’s stated reasons for leaving, but Israeli media covering the data noted that emigration in the months leading up to the outbreak of the war last year coincided with mass protests against the government’s judicial overhaul plan.