550,000 Israelis left country during 1st 6 months of war: State authority

By Said Amori

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

The authority’s data indicates that the number of Israelis who 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 might have been a temporary escape for Israelis during the war or technical difficulties in returning has now turned into a permanent trend, or permanent migration.

According to data from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, in April, Israel's population stood at 9.9 million, including more than 2 million Palestinians, 400,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem and 20,000 Syrians in the occupied Golan Heights.

Millions of Israelis hold dual citizenship as they possess at least one other nationality alongside their Israeli citizenship.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack last year by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

More than 37,500 Palestinians have since 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 into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala