JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL 

Around 79,000 Israelis left the country last year, a figure significantly up from a year earlier, amid rising regional tensions over Tel Aviv’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Israel’s population reached around 10.148 million people, with a growth rate of 1.0%.

Of this figure, roughly 7.758 million are Jews (78.5 percent), about 2.13 million are Arabs (21.5 percent), and around 260,000 are foreign nationals.

The count also includes some 400,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1980 — a move not recognized by the UN.

The bureau said approximately 179,000 children were born in Israel in 2024, while around 50,000 people died.

It said about 25,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel and 5,000 others entered under the family reunification program.

In addition, nearly 21,000 Israelis who had previously emigrated returned to the country, while some 79,000 left Israel.

In 2023, around 55,300 Israelis emigrated, while about 27,000 returned or moved to Israel, according to official figures.

Tensions have grown inside Israel and with neighboring countries over Tel Aviv’s ongoing war on Gaza, where more than 65,000 people have been killed since October 2023.

Israel also launched a war against Iran in June, near-daily strikes in Lebanon and Syria, and military assaults in the occupied West Bank.