Human Trafficking in Israel

Human trafficking encompasses exploiting people through compelled labor, commercial sex, slavery-like conditions, debt bondage, involuntary domestic servitude, and other forms of coercion. A person’s apparent agreement does not necessarily eliminate trafficking concerns where threats, fraud, debt, document confiscation, isolation, or restricted movement constrain their choices.[1][5] In Israel, reporting describes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking, with vulnerabilities linked to recruitment practices, work permits, economic insecurity, and the difficulty some victims face in approaching authorities.

The U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons ranking evaluates government efforts against its standards; it is not a measure of how prevalent trafficking is in a country.[4] In 2024 and 2025, the department placed Israel in Tier 2, stating that the government did not fully meet minimum standards but was making significant efforts.[2][3] Its 2026 assessment returned Israel to Tier 1, while still identifying insufficient accountability for labor trafficking and concerns about victim recognition and access to services.[4]

Official figures capture identified cases rather than the full extent of exploitation. Israel recognized 100 victims in the 2023 reporting period and 115 in the 2024 period. The U.S. reports also describe people who may not be identified or recognized, including workers reluctant to report abuse, migrants concerned about immigration consequences, and people whose experiences are referred to authorities by civil-society organizations rather than discovered through proactive screening.[2][3]

Israel’s first trafficking measure described in the research bundle dates to June 2000, when the government enacted a law prohibiting trafficking for prostitution. A separate Equality of Women Law passed in March that year stated that women were entitled to protection from violence, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and trafficking. The initial trafficking measure was limited to prostitution-related offenses.[6]

In a 2008 account, then-national anti-trafficking coordinator Rahel Gershuni traced the modern trafficking problem to the 1990s, when young women from the former Soviet Union were brought to Israel for prostitution. She described an early official response in which some women were treated as illegal entrants or foreign prostitutes rather than as victims, and some were deported or charged. The account cited a police estimate of 3,000 women trafficked annually at the peak, while noting that NGOs estimated a higher number; these are historical estimates, not current totals.[7]

The 2006 Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (Legislative Amendments) Law broadened criminalization beyond prostitution. It covered trafficking for purposes including slavery, forced labor, prostitution, pornography, sexual abuse, and organ selling, and entered into force on October 29, 2006. The law sets a maximum prison term of 16 years for trafficking an adult and 20 years when the victim is a child. It also defines buying, selling, or otherwise transacting in a person as trafficking, whether or not money is paid.[8][9]

The law separately criminalizes holding a person in slavery-like conditions for work or services, including sex services, with a maximum sentence of 16 years, rising to 20 years when the victim is a minor. Its definition of slavery includes exercising powers generally associated with ownership, such as substantial control over a person’s life or denying liberty. Unlawfully obtaining forced labor through force, pressure, threats, or fraud carries a maximum seven-year sentence. A special fund financed by forfeited property and fines is intended to support rehabilitation, treatment, protection, compensation, prevention, and law enforcement; at least half of its annual assets must be allocated to victim rehabilitation, treatment, and protection.[9]

The legislative expansion followed pressure from several directions. Gershuni’s 2008 account cited police encounters with the scale and severity of trafficking, NGO advocacy, a parliamentary inquiry committee, and criticism in a 2001 U.S. State Department report. Subsequent measures included stronger border monitoring, coordination between agencies and NGOs, national plans, public information for women in countries of origin, and criminalization of trafficking beyond prostitution, including forced labor and organ removal.[7]

The 2022–2026 national anti-trafficking program assigned the National Anti-Trafficking Unit responsibility for the victim-recognition mechanism and introduced inter-office cooperation, a protection model, dedicated teams, and long-term research. It also included guidance on proactive identification and prevention following Russia’s war in Ukraine. The unit provides training for government authorities, academic institutions, and civil-society organizations.[10]

Labor-trafficking risks are reported among foreign workers in construction, agriculture, and caregiving, as well as among Palestinians working in Israel. Common warning signs described in official guidance include withheld passports or identity papers, threats, exceptionally long hours, prohibited leave, very low or unpaid wages, unsafe work, inadequate food or sleeping conditions, isolation, restricted movement, and denial of medical care. Fear of deportation, language barriers, debt, and dependence on an employer can sharply limit a worker’s practical choices.[11]

Foreign workers arrive from regions including South and Southeast Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Palestinian communities, and are employed particularly in construction, agriculture, and caregiving. Reported risks include recruitment fees, high-interest loans, wage withholding, passport confiscation, poor living conditions, excessive hours, and restrictions on changing employers. Caregivers, predominantly women in the reported account, can be isolated in private homes. NGOs have described fraudulent contracts, violence or harassment, underpayment, and denial of severance among problems affecting some caregivers.[2][3]

Agricultural workers have faced risks associated with long shifts, lack of breaks or rest days, withheld passports, poor housing, and difficulty changing employers. A 2020 report described 15 Thai workers who reported long hours, little sleep, extreme heat, poor housing, fines, inadequate protection while handling toxins, late pay, and wages below the minimum. After an NGO petitioned the Supreme Court, authorities recognized them as trafficking victims and moved them to a shelter.[12]

Some agricultural students have reportedly been recruited on student visas and then made to work rather than study. NGOs have described tuition or other fees as de facto recruitment costs that may create debt bondage, while observers questioned whether some programs contained adequate academic content. In one case, Israel recognized 10 Vietnamese agricultural students as trafficking victims in 2021 after reports that they worked 14-to-16-hour days, lived in company-controlled housing, had their passports confiscated, and faced a threatened $30,000 promissory note if they broke their contracts.[2][3]

Recruitment outside bilateral work agreements has been a continuing concern. In 2023, 16,532 foreign workers reportedly arrived through bilateral agreements and 15,532 through other recruitment frameworks. In May 2024, the government approved Resolution 1752, prioritizing bilateral recruitment and allowing private recruitment only from countries it considered to be making significant efforts against trafficking; it also established an interagency committee to oversee recruitment. Israel maintained sector-specific agreements with 15 countries and signed five new agreements in 2024.[2][3]

Worker-paid recruitment fees were not fully prohibited under the rules described in the 2025 report. Regulations effective from 2022 allowed domestic-care recruitment companies to require three payments totaling 6,107 shekels. The Philippines suspended its bilateral agreement in 2023, alleging that a policy change violated the agreement. NGOs continued to report illegal fees and inadequate oversight, particularly in recruitment outside established bilateral arrangements.[3]

Children and women also face reported risks of sexual exploitation. The U.S. reports identify Israeli children, Israeli Bedouin, Palestinian women and girls, foreign women, and transgender adults and children as vulnerable. Traffickers may use social media, dating apps, online forums, and chat rooms to exploit girls. Some Israeli Bedouin and Palestinian women and girls have reportedly been forced by family members into marriages with older men, followed by abuse, threats, or restricted movement; the reports describe such circumstances as potentially involving sex or labor trafficking. Drug addiction is also cited as a means of control, and some Bedouin Israeli children are reported to face forced labor involving long hours and physical violence.[2][3]

The reports describe Palestinian workers as vulnerable to forced labor in circumstances involving employer-linked permits, recruitment fees, identity-document retention, and illegal subcontracting. After Israel revoked Palestinian work permits in October 2023, observers reported increased illegal employment; the 2025 report estimated approximately 40,000 Palestinians were working illegally in Israel as of February 2025. Palestinian children have been reported as exploited in forced begging, street vending, windshield washing, other labor, and coerced criminal acts. NGOs have also said that some Palestinians in commercial sex show trafficking indicators but may avoid official recognition because of fear of retaliation or distrust of authorities.[3]

Asylum-seekers and temporary residents are described as particularly vulnerable when their legal status and limited work options leave them dependent on low-wage or unsafe employment. The 2024 report cited approximately 23,081 African asylum-seekers in Israel as of December 2023, most from Eritrea or Sudan, and said their temporary stay permits did not explicitly grant a right to work. The 2025 report cited an NGO estimate of approximately 39,400 African asylum-seekers as of December 2024, most from Eritrea, Ethiopia, or Sudan, and described continued vulnerability in low-wage and unsafe work.[2][3]

The 2025 report also described risks to women and girls fleeing the Russia-Ukraine war. NGOs reported cases of women being coerced into sex by employers in some coffee shops or pubs, landlords, or male roommates. The government estimated that a pre-pandemic figure of about 400 female asylum-seekers involved in “survival sex” had tripled in recent years; NGOs said economic effects of the conflict following October 7, 2023, increased reliance on survival sex and trafficking vulnerability.[3]

A separate, earlier trafficking route involved migrants who crossed from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. A 2010 article republished by the Institute for National Security Studies described allegations of abduction, abuse, and trafficking of Eritreans and other Africans in Sinai. It reported that Israel’s Defense Ministry had formally asked Egypt for assistance and that the Foreign Ministry was raising the issue; it also quoted Egypt’s Tel Aviv embassy as acknowledging abuse and saying it was working to combat it. UNHCR was reported to be pressing Egyptian authorities for access to people detained while traveling through Sinai.[13]

A 2020 analysis described trafficking networks operating within a broader system that moved migrants from Cairo through eastern Sinai. It said that at the peak, thousands crossed the Israel–Sinai border monthly, amounting to tens of thousands per year, and described Israel’s response as including a border barrier, security roads, intelligence gathering, holding facilities, legal measures, deportation proceedings, and coordination with Egyptian forces.[14] The 2024 U.S. report cited an NGO estimate that approximately 4,000–5,000 African migrants remained in Israel in 2020 after experiencing torture and exploitation in Sinai between 2011 and 2017; the NGO estimated that only about 400–500 had been officially recognized as trafficking victims.[2]

The 2024 and 2025 U.S. reports also described allegations concerning hostages taken on October 7, 2023. They said Hamas, and in the later report Hamas and other terrorist organizations, may have subjected Israeli and foreign hostages to repeated rape and sexual assault or other conditions potentially amounting to sex trafficking or sexual slavery, while using captivity to seek concessions. The reports said these allegations were under investigation by the Israeli government and international observers and did not present them as completed legal findings. The 2025 report additionally recounted released hostages’ reports of experiences that could potentially amount to labor trafficking.[2][3]

The formal process for recognizing trafficking victims changed in January 2024, when authority moved from the Police Anti-Trafficking Coordination Unit to the Ministry of Justice’s Anti-Trafficking Coordinator, following a 22-month pilot. An advisory committee brings together government agencies, civil society, and trafficking survivors. The change was intended to improve recognition, but NGOs raised concerns about the resources available, the evidentiary burden placed on applicants, and the possibility that demanding third-party witnesses could retraumatize applicants or deter them from seeking recognition.[2]

The government’s written procedure describes recognition as a comprehensive, trauma-informed examination intended to avoid unnecessary delays and facilitate protection. Applications may be made by the person concerned or by someone acting on their behalf, and urgent cases can receive interim remedies. A decision is ordinarily due within 45 days, with a possible 45-day extension; applicants may object to a denial. The coordinator decides in consultation with an inter-sectoral advisory committee.[11]

In the 2023 reporting period, authorities received 133 referrals of potential victims, compared with 128 in 2022. Government sources referred 66 people and civil society and NGOs referred 67. The government officially recognized 100 victims: 51 identified as exploited in sex trafficking, 35 in labor trafficking, and 14 in unspecified forms. Ninety-one were non-Israeli nationals. Two people trafficked in Sinai before arriving in Israel were recognized, compared with seven in the previous year.[2]

In the following reporting period, authorities received 135 referrals and recognized 115 victims. Of those recognized, 37 were identified as exploited in sex trafficking, 29 in labor trafficking, and 49 in unspecified forms. Thirty-eight of the unspecified cases involved exploitation in a “harmful cult” abroad that could have involved sex or labor trafficking. Seventy-three recognized victims were non-Israelis, from countries including Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Palestine, Russia, Sudan, Thailand, and Ukraine. The government also recognized and assisted 38 Israeli victims identified in a cult in Guatemala and coordinated their repatriation with Guatemalan authorities.[3]

The reports identify shortcomings in proactive identification, particularly in labor trafficking. Authorities relied heavily on potential victims to identify themselves or on civil-society referrals. The 2025 report said limited staffing and resources, along with front-line officials’ limited understanding, weakened identification. NGOs said that the high evidentiary threshold, including requests for third-party witnesses, could retraumatize victims and leave some unrecognized. Fear of deportation and distrust of authorities were also described as barriers to applications.[3]

The Ministry of Justice’s field identification tool lists possible indicators including physical or sexual abuse, threats, withheld documents, humiliation, very long hours, prohibited leave, low or unpaid wages, unsafe work, denial of health care, inadequate food or sleeping conditions, restricted movement, isolation, and transferring a person for exploitation. It emphasizes that not every indicator must be present, that immigration status does not determine whether someone can be a victim, and that apparent consent does not negate trafficking or slavery.[11]

Victims can be referred for temporary shelter and assistance while their cases are reviewed. During the period covered by the 2025 report, 43 potential victims received temporary services. The government and an NGO operated separate 35-bed shelters for female and male victims, along with transitional apartments providing 18 beds for women. Shelter services included job training, psychosocial care, medical treatment, language instruction, and legal assistance. Residents could leave freely, and the shelters assisted 70 victims during that reporting period.[3]

A separate National Center for Survivors of Slavery and Trafficking in Persons in Tel Aviv serves people waiting for shelter space, choosing not to live in a shelter, or completing a shelter stay. It provides psychosocial care and food aid, and employs social workers trained to identify re-trafficking risks. Israel began implementing individualized care plans that shortened specialized-shelter stays to about six months, with an option to extend, while enabling continued access to the day center or to 40 specialized social workers around the country. The government began expanding the day center and transferred psychological services to a dedicated Tel Aviv clinic with extended hours. It also increased trauma-informed care in response to stressors associated with the October 7 attack and ensuing conflict. NGOs said services could be difficult to access outside Tel Aviv.[3]

Earlier services included support delivered through shelters and a day center. In 2023, the women’s shelter assisted 56 adults and the men’s shelter assisted 21 victims; the day center served 93 men and 129 women. NGOs said the shelter model was not well suited to some labor-trafficking victims, whose needs may call for more flexible treatment options.[2]

A July 2024 law extended free legal aid through the Legal Aid Administration to all trafficking victims for civil, immigration, and criminal proceedings. Previously, forced-labor victims did not automatically have access to legal aid in criminal proceedings. In 2024, the administration received 75 requests for assistance to potential victims. Foreign victims could receive a B1 rehabilitation visa allowing them to work during investigations and prosecutions and could request an additional year’s visa after proceedings; the government issued 34 B1 visas and 73 residency permits during the reporting period.[3]

Courts awarded victims at least 204,971 shekels in civil proceedings and ordered at least 426,000 shekels in restitution in 2024. Although the government’s forfeiture fund continued distributing previously allocated resources, it made no new allocations that year because of resource shortages. Government reporting has described the fund as supporting victim protection directly or through civil-society organizations, including vocational training, mental-health care, dental treatment, and other medical services.[3][10]

Government guidance discourages prosecuting victims for unlawful acts that directly result from trafficking. In the period described in the 2025 report, authorities intervened in at least seven cases to withdraw proceedings against potential victims. However, the report said authorities did not systematically screen several groups for trafficking indicators, including undocumented African migrants, foreign workers employed by foreign construction companies, Palestinian children in forced begging or forced criminality, and people in commercial sex. This left some potential victims at risk of penalties for immigration violations or prostitution-associated offenses. A record-expungement program for people convicted of prostitution-associated offenses but not imprisoned resulted in three sex-trafficking victims’ records being expunged in 2024.[3]

Israel’s National Anti-Trafficking Unit coordinates work among ministries and NGOs. It continued implementing a 2022–2026 national action plan and implementation plan, and published a report on government efforts using 2023 data in December 2024. In November 2024, the government added a position focused on preventing labor trafficking. The unit also carried out public-awareness campaigns and training for officials and service providers. NGOs described it as knowledgeable and politically willing to act, while questioning its resources and influence over other government bodies.[3]

The government’s enforcement record includes increased action in some periods, alongside a repeated gap in labor-trafficking prosecutions. In 2023, police initiated 54 new trafficking investigations: 10 sex-trafficking investigations involving 34 suspects, four labor-trafficking investigations involving seven suspects, and 40 child sex-trafficking investigations involving 25 suspects. The government also investigated 57 sex-trafficking-related matters that it classified as prostitution-related offenses.[2]

That year, the government initiated 16 prosecutions: 10 for sex trafficking, two for recruiting minors for prostitution, and four for purchasing sexual services from a minor. Courts convicted 11 traffickers, including five for sex trafficking, one for labor trafficking, four for purchasing sexual services from a minor, and one for advertising or informing about prostitution services of a minor. The State Department report noted that no new labor-trafficking prosecution had been initiated for the third consecutive year, even though NGOs referred cases and identified and referred 54 labor-trafficking victims.[2]

For the reporting period covered by the 2025 report, police initiated 20 investigations involving at least 32 suspects: four sex-trafficking cases, five labor-trafficking cases, and 11 child sex-trafficking cases. Authorities also investigated 81 cases involving sex-trafficking-related conduct but classified them as prostitution-related offenses. The government initiated 13 sex-trafficking prosecutions, while 77 prosecutions begun in earlier periods remained ongoing. It reported no new labor-trafficking prosecution for the fourth consecutive year, despite NGOs referring cases and the government recognizing labor-trafficking victims.[3]

Courts convicted 11 traffickers during that reporting period: seven for sex trafficking and four for purchasing sexual services from a minor. Of 13 sentences issued, including cases convicted in earlier periods, five traffickers received at least one year in prison. The report said the sentences weakened deterrence and did not adequately reflect the crimes. On appeal, two convictions were upheld and one was overturned. Authorities also reported investigating a new case of alleged official complicity in 2024, prosecuting an allegedly complicit official, and convicting one former official in a case pending appeal; in a separate matter, an appeal resulted in a conviction after an initial acquittal.[3]

The 2006 law sets substantial maximum penalties, but the State Department has identified a difference between its definition and the international definition referenced in its reports: Israeli law does not make force, fraud, or coercion an essential element of the trafficking offense. The department assessed the penalties as sufficiently stringent and recommended amending the law to include a definition consistent with international law. It also noted that prosecutors use a separate criminal-code provision for purchasing sexual services from a minor, carrying a maximum three-year sentence—lower than the anti-trafficking-law maximums.[2][3]

Labor inspection and enforcement figures show activity but also persistent capacity and accountability concerns. In 2023, the Ministry of Economy and Industry reported 210 labor inspectors, 167 administrative warnings, 26 fines totaling 2.255 million shekels, and five indictments for labor violations. Inspections led employers to return 701,958 shekels in withheld wages to 156 foreign workers. NGOs said staffing and interpretation capacity were insufficient to monitor some sectors effectively.[2]

In 2024, the ministry again reported 210 labor inspectors. It issued 92 administrative warnings, imposed 22 fines totaling 1.46 million shekels, and filed five indictments for labor violations that remained ongoing at the end of the reporting period. Labor courts fined employers of foreign workers a total of 165,000 shekels in five cases. Inspections led employers to return 285,000 shekels in withheld wages to 65 foreign workers. The Population and Immigration Authority’s enforcement unit opened 372 criminal investigations but reported no indictments against foreign-worker employers for suspected labor-law or anti-trafficking-law violations.[3]

The State Department’s reports also describe changes in operating conditions after October 7, 2023. Some law-enforcement resources were redirected to conflict-related work. Labor shortages, particularly in construction and agriculture, followed the cancellation of permits for Palestinian workers and the departure of Thai agricultural workers. The government adopted temporary measures to increase recruitment outside bilateral agreements; NGOs warned that private recruitment could expose workers to illegal fees and that oversight might be insufficient.[2]

The department’s 2024 report placed Israel in Tier 2, noting increased investigations and prosecutions, alongside shortcomings in labor-trafficking accountability, proactive victim identification, and oversight of recruitment outside bilateral agreements. Its 2025 report continued to place Israel in Tier 2 and described steps such as individualized victim-protection planning, recruitment rules, additional agency personnel, investigations of alleged official complicity, and expanded legal aid. It nevertheless found that the government had not initiated labor-trafficking prosecutions for four consecutive years.[2][3]

In 2026, according to coverage of the State Department report, Israel returned to Tier 1 after five consecutive years in Tier 2. The report credited formalized procedures to identify Palestinian trafficking victims, increased funding for protection services, and more labor inspectors. It still identified inadequate criminal accountability for labor traffickers. The same coverage cited a government-commissioned study finding that 73 percent of surveyed construction workers recruited privately had paid more than US$4,000 in recruitment fees, while approximately 20 percent said employers had taken their passports or other documents.[4]

Historical accounts describe an evolution from a focus on trafficking for prostitution toward a broader legal and policy framework that includes forced labor and slavery. In 2006, police estimates reported at the time placed the number of women trafficked into Israel for commercial sexual exploitation at about 3,000 in 2003 and “a few hundred” in 2006. Those numbers are historical estimates and should not be read as current measurements.[9]

A 2007 account of the U.S. assessment described Israel as a destination for low-skilled contract workers from China, Romania, Jordan, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India, some of whom reportedly faced passport withholding, movement restrictions, threats, or physical intimidation. It also described women trafficked from Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Belarus, and Russia, for commercial sexual exploitation. The same account said Israel had moved from the U.S. Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2 after legislative amendments, while noting inadequate protection for forced-labor victims and no reported prosecutions under the new labor-trafficking law at that point.[15]

Accounts of the 2011 assessment described migrant workers in construction, agriculture, and home health care facing passport withholding, movement restrictions, limits on employer choice, unpaid wages, threats, sexual assault, and intimidation. Recruitment fees reported at the time ranged from $4,000 to $20,000 and could contribute to debt bondage. The recommendations included stronger labor-trafficking prosecutions, improved victim identification, more trained labor inspectors and translators, and safeguards against penalizing victims for unlawful acts resulting from trafficking.[16]

Reports for later years recorded changes in investigations and victim identification. Coverage of the 2018 assessment said authorities identified 59 new victims of trafficking and slavery that year, opened 139 criminal investigations, and filed 22 indictments. In 2019, a report cited 73 identified victims, 125 criminal investigations, and 20 indictments. These figures refer to their respective years, not present-day totals.[17][18]

Israel’s first government activity report on trafficking, covering 2017–2021, recorded 325 people recognized as victims; 71 percent were women and 1 percent were minors. The report classified 40 percent as victims of sexual exploitation, 44 percent as held in slavery-like conditions, and 16 percent as trafficked for other reasons. During the period, police conducted 789 suspect interrogations, 155 indictments were filed, and 99 people were convicted. One case involved six children aged 6–15 who worked in a family bakery in southern Israel, sometimes overnight and without breaks or holidays, for 15–20 shekels a day. The children were physically abused when they failed to meet work targets; the case came to light after one child was hospitalized following the amputation of three fingers in a dough-cutting machine accident. The perpetrators were convicted of holding minors in slavery conditions.[19]

In 2021, the U.S. State Department downgraded Israel from Tier 1 to Tier 2, citing failure to meet minimum standards despite significant efforts. Its report described Eritrean and Sudanese migrants and asylum-seekers as highly vulnerable, alongside Israeli children, Israeli Bedouin and Palestinian women and girls, foreign women, and transgender adults and children. It recorded 11 police investigations in 2020, compared with 18 in 2019, and nine prosecutions, compared with 20. It also cited an NGO estimate of approximately 3,000 Israeli child sex-trafficking victims in 2020; this was an attributed estimate, not an official count.[20]

A March 2024 report described 171 people as having been recognized as trafficking victims during the two preceding years, most from Russia, Ukraine, and Ethiopia. It also described the transfer of recognition authority from the police to the Justice Ministry coordinator and the advisory committee that includes government and police representatives, civil-society organizations, and trafficking survivors.[21]

The annual U.S. tier ranking is an assessment of government compliance and effort under U.S. standards, not a direct estimate of trafficking prevalence. Israel’s reported ranking history includes Tier 1 from 2012 through 2020, Tier 2 from 2021 through 2025, and a return to Tier 1 in the 2026 report. That improvement coincided with continued criticism of labor-trafficking accountability and victim recognition, illustrating that a tier change does not mean all identified shortcomings have been resolved.[4]

Victim recognition remains a point of concern. The formal transfer of authority to the Justice Ministry was welcomed by NGOs, but they questioned whether the unit had sufficient resources and criticized the evidentiary burden on applicants. Reports also describe a tension between recognition and immigration processes, including fear of deportation, distrust of authorities, and difficulties for people who may need both protection and a safe status. These concerns are assessments and reports attributed to NGOs and official reporting, rather than a uniform finding about every application.[2][3]

A 2026 account of the State Comptroller’s audit reported deficiencies in enforcement against trafficking for prostitution and in victim protection and treatment. It said police translated only 44 percent of limited trafficking intelligence into operational activity in 2024, and reported that the police trafficking team had one officer at the end of the audit period, with additional approved positions still unfilled at that time. The audit also identified coordination problems concerning residence permits, information-sharing, and transporting victims to shelters.[22]

The same audit coverage reported that police closed only 13 brothels in 2024 despite information concerning more than 1,300 suspected prostitution locations. It also reported that police fines for purchasing sex declined from 3,004 in 2022 to 902 in 2023 and 378 the following year, before rising to 1,061 in 2025. These figures concern prostitution enforcement and should not be treated as a count of trafficking victims or as a measure of all trafficking forms.[23]

Prostitution estimates likewise require care in interpretation. A survey conducted in 2016 estimated that about 12,000 people were in prostitution in 2014, 95 percent women, including 1,300 minors; the reported average age of entry was 13–14. Practitioners later estimated that 3,000–5,000 boys and girls were in prostitution in 2025. These are estimates relating to prostitution, not counts of trafficking victims.[23]

Some reporting also concerns allegations involving armed conflict and the geographic scope of official assessments. The 2025 U.S. report’s Israel chapter uses boundaries recognized by the United States, while discussing Palestinians and events in Gaza and the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria. Its chapter framing should be distinguished from the underlying trafficking findings. Allegations concerning hostages, child recruitment and use, and the alleged use of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces were described as allegations or reports under investigation, not as adjudicated findings.[3]

A 2008 academic commentary considered trafficking and prostitution through Jewish literature, historical sources, and human-rights approaches derived from Jewish texts. Its abstract proposed that one possible explanation for public and legislative apathy was that trafficked women were not Jewish or Israeli. This is the author’s interpretation, not a quantified finding about public attitudes.[24]