According to a new study, at least 50 Israeli doctors left the country in the first year and a half following the attacks organized by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent genocide in Gaza. This study revealed a trend of doctor emigration from Israel, which has prompted warnings among Israeli medical professionals about serious consequences for the country's public healthcare system.
The Israel Medical Association (IMA) conducted a survey in 32 hospitals and medical centers across the country. The IMA published the results of this survey at an emergency meeting regarding doctor emigration, following a recent report from Tel Aviv University, which established that 1369 doctors left Israel for more than a year between 2023 and 2025.
According to the IMA, the professional organization representing most doctors in Israel, besides the 50 identified departures, noted that another 53 doctors went abroad for specialization and did not return to Israel within the specified timeframe. The news site Ynet reported that some medical fields were particularly affected by this migration, including gastroenterology, oncology, internal medicine, and psychiatry.
The report cited four main reasons prompting doctors to leave the country: the security situation in Israel, personal circumstances, the desire for professional advancement, and improved compensation. However, an Israeli psychiatrist stated at a conference that higher salaries are at the bottom of the list of desires for emigrating doctors.
Instead, the psychiatrist emphasized that the main factors driving departures were the unstable security environment, concerns about their children's future, professional burnout, and the availability of broader career opportunities. This same psychiatrist noted that since the October 7 attacks, they have faced an unprecedented number of people seeking mental health assistance, which is one of the reasons for departure.
According to the Israeli NGO ERAN, which provides emotional and psychiatric support, about a quarter of all Israelis showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the last three years, and the group received hundreds of thousands of calls from those needing help.
Zion Hagai, Chairman of the IMA, stated that the main destinations for Israeli doctors are the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany, adding that 'Israeli doctors are in demand worldwide.' Hagai called the doctor outflow a 'strategic threat to Israel' and promised to create a forum aimed at persuading Israeli doctors to return home.
Doctor emigration is part of a broader population outflow from Israel. Tel Aviv University recently showed that nearly 270,000 people have left the country since 2023, with highly educated Israelis being disproportionately represented among those who left. Healthcare workers expressed serious concern that not only young specialists but also a growing number of experienced doctors are leaving.
According to the Tel Aviv University report, 20 percent of doctors who left the country between 2023 and 2025 are over 45 years old, accounting for 270 experienced doctors. This is a sharp increase compared to the previous decade, when the share of departing doctors over 45 was 14 percent. Overall, there has been a jump in doctor emigration from Israel by 94 percent between 2023 and 2025 compared to the previous decade, when 705 doctors left the country between 2013 and 2015.
Ynet notes that the departure of both young and experienced doctors causes great anxiety in Israel, as 24 percent of specialists in the country's public hospitals are approaching retirement age. One healthcare worker stated that the departure of interns 'harms the healthcare system in the medium and long term,' and the departure of specialists who should train the next generation of Israeli doctors 'will also undermine the superiority of the healthcare system.'
As Israel's population increased by 1.2 percent in the last Hebrew year, reaching a total of about 10,305,000 people, the availability of doctors is of immense importance to the country. The Ministry of Health reported last week that Israel will require about 32,000 specialists by 2035, compared to approximately 20,000 Israeli specialists currently working in the country.
However, doctor emigration is not the only problem for Israel's healthcare system. In recent years, the number of Palestinian community doctors in Israel suffering from racist attacks has been increasing. Israeli politicians and experts are calling for a reduction in Palestinian staff in Israeli hospitals, despite the labor shortage, while one Israeli expert stated last month that Palestinian medical personnel 'are poisoning Jews.' Furthermore, it is extremely difficult for Palestinian students and graduates to find work in the Israeli healthcare system, as a recent report showed that about 4,000 Palestinian graduates cannot find a position in the healthcare sector in Israel.