Following the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7th and the outbreak of the war, Israel's agriculture and construction industries faced a shortage of approximately 100,000 workers.
This shortage resulted from the departure of some foreign workers and the ban on the entry of workers from the Palestinian Authority.
To address this crisis, quotas for the import of foreign workers were increased, negotiations for hiring were expanded to include more countries, and private companies were permitted to resume importing foreign workers outside of bilateral agreements.
Such agreements had been prohibited for over a decade. The total import quota now stands at 65,000 people, with 45,000 allocated under bilateral agreements and 20,000 for private companies.
Despite these measures, the situation remains dire. According to data presented at a meeting of the Knesset Special Committee on Foreign Workers, only 357 foreign workers have entered Israel since the start of the war.
An additional 433 have received permission to enter Israel but have not yet arrived.
