550,000 Israelis left the country during the first six months of the war: State Authority

JERUSALEM

More than half a million Israelis left the country during the first six months of the war between Israel and Hamas and did not return, the Times of Israel reported on Sunday, citing the Population and Immigration Authority.

According to the agency, the number of Israelis who have left the country since October last year is around 550,000 – more than those who returned by Easter this year in April.

The news website said that what may have been a temporary escape for Israelis during the war or due to technical difficulties in returning has now become a permanent trend or migration.

According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel’s population in April was 9.9 million, including more than two million Palestinians, 400,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem and 20,000 Syrians in the occupied Golan Heights.

Millions of Israelis have dual citizenship because they have at least one other nationality in addition to Israeli citizenship.

Israel has ignored a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and is facing international criticism for its ongoing brutal offensive on Gaza since the attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on October 7 last year.

Since then, more than 37,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 86,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than eight months after the start of the Israeli war, large parts of the Gaza Strip lie in ruins and there is a crippling blockade of the supply of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide by the International Court of Justice. In its latest ruling, Israel was ordered to immediately cease its operations in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before the May 6 invasion.

*Written by Rania Abu Shamala

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