50,000 Illegal Palestinian Workers in Israel: Enforcement Failure or Willful Blindness?

In short, the Israeli economy has relied for decades on cheap Palestinian labor. After October 7, the entry of about 150,000 permit holders was banned, and only about a tenth of them have since returned. Foreign workers are much more expensive, and even then some говорят of a shortage of tens of thousands. Into that gap step Palestinians without permits, and when the police catch them, they shut the business down. Business owners can find themselves facing severe punishment even when they say they checked and believed the workers were legal, in the midst of a troubling reality of forged documents and manpower companies that cannot always be trusted.

At around 2:30 a.m. on one night last week, under cover of darkness, dozens of Palestinians began moving toward the separation fence in the Tarkumiya area, west of Hebron. For some of them, it seemed this was meant to be yet another illegal entry into Israel to work at construction sites, restaurants and other businesses. But on the other side, security forces were waiting. Within a short time, the infiltration attempt turned into a large-scale arrest operation, which ended with some 100 illegal residents detained before they managed to disperse across Israeli territory.

In recent months, we appear to be witnessing an increased wave of enforcement against the employment of illegal residents in real estate, restaurants and food businesses. About two years ago, the Knesset also approved an amendment that significantly toughened the penalties for transporting, housing and employing them. Yet despite all this, the phenomenon is far from disappearing. On the contrary. Although no official figure has been published, various estimates say that there are currently about 50,000 Palestinians in Israel without valid permits, compared with about 35,000 to 40,000 on the eve of the war. The gap between the declared policy and what is happening on the ground is striking, and raises a question many prefer not to ask: if the goal is to solve the problem, why is it only getting worse?

"In practice, the state is turning a blind eye to the illegal workers, even though outwardly it presents a clear position that no Palestinian may enter," says a source familiar with the details. "This is Israeli-style improvisation."

We went behind the scenes of the illegal-worker phenomenon flooding Israel to understand how the system works and what the solution is.

For years, Palestinian workers, legal and illegal, have become part of Israel's economic reality, mainly in construction, agriculture, restaurants and services. Since the war broke out in October 2023, the state has dramatically changed its policy on employing Palestinians from the West Bank. At the start of the war, entry was barred for about 125,000 to 150,000 permit holders, and only gradually was a small portion allowed back to work. Today, only about 14,000 Palestinians with permits are employed in Israel, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

At the same time, activity in the settlements in Judea and Samaria resumed faster, with about 32,000 Palestinians returning to work there, out of roughly 48,000 employed there before the war. Taking their place were foreign workers brought in from Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. According to Population and Immigration Authority data, the number of foreign workers in 2025 stands at 116,000, nearly two-thirds of them in real estate.

But the business sector says foreign workers did not exactly fill the vacuum. "Working with them is very complicated," says Eran Siv, chairman of the Renovation Contractors Association. "A company that wants to employ foreign workers has to contact a manpower corporation, and there they demand that more than one worker be employed, even if they are not needed. In addition, the state decided that a foreign worker would be employed for about 182 hours a month, but the manpower corporations demand 200 hours. We do not always need them beyond the hours in the procedure, but we are forced to pay anyway."

And that is not the end of it. The costs borne by the employer are much higher than before the war. A Palestinian worker with a permit costs about 6,600 shekels a month, a gross salary of about 5,600 shekels plus social costs. A foreign worker, by contrast, costs more than 12,000 shekels a month, a gross salary of about 8,200 shekels, plus housing that the contractor must finance and fees to the manpower companies that bring him to the country. In other words, almost twice as much.

Even in numerical terms, industry sources say, the problem has not yet been solved. "I estimate that at least 40,000 workers are currently missing," says a source familiar with the details. "Only in buildings and infrastructure there is enormous destruction in the north, and they have not even started building there yet. That is drawing a lot of workers there."

For these and other reasons, many employers prefer to turn to Palestinians without permits, whose cost is even lower, often only a few thousand shekels a month, and with less bureaucracy, which partly explains the phenomenon.

On social media, one can find posts indicating the high demand. For example, in a Facebook post the writer offered to issue work permits for Palestinian workers: "Need work permits for Palestinian workers (originally, Tash)... feel free to contact me, I issue Civil Administration permits." In a conversation we held with the post's publisher, we introduced ourselves as restaurant owners looking for dishwashers. He refused to explain what his business does or give the company's name. Instead, he presented himself as someone who helps solve bureaucratic bottlenecks. "I am considered kind of a door opener, with the Income Tax Authority, National Insurance, Customs, all security branches, the Land Administration, all the banks, all the health funds, all the insurance companies," he claimed. "I cover all the territories, Jordan, the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait. There are certain sectors in which I have been bringing in Palestinians for a long time, it's simply under the radar. I have, for example, several dozen in Bnei Brak."

"Manpower companies are not punished"

In recent months we have seen more notices about businesses, construction sites and restaurants being shut down because they employed illegal residents, and apparently it is not always due to negligence by the owners. For example, last week it was reported that the legendary Cafe Hatatbit in Tel Aviv was closed for 30 days, although the owner claims she knew nothing about it. According to her, the workers came through a manpower company that contractually promised to supply only legal workers.

This case is not unique, and raises a fundamental question: how much can be demanded of a business owner to verify a worker's legality on their own? The difficulty is compounded by two troubling phenomena. The first is forged identity cards, sometimes almost impossible to identify by an untrained eye. The second is the reliance of business owners on manpower companies, which present contracts, guarantees and documents, but do not always fulfill their commitments in practice. The result is that business owners find themselves harshly punished for acts they did not know about and could not necessarily prevent.

"I approached a manpower company," recalls one business owner who chose to remain anonymous. "A sympathetic and polite person answered me. He promised me that the workers were Israelis, so I decided to sign a contract stating that I would be supplied only legal workers with blue IDs. After I was issued a closure order, I turned to the company and it simply disowned responsibility. I was told, 'your problem.'" In his case, however, it turned out that this was not just negligence, but that the company was operating illegally at all. "Very quickly I understood that there were people there who were impersonating others, the company was registered under someone else's name and it changes the company registration number every two days."

On paper, manpower companies are supposed to bear shared responsibility, since they recruited the workers, checked them and promised the business owner that they were legal. But the reality is more complicated. "If it is a manpower company that pays the worker's salary, then it is his actual employer," explains an industry source. "But if the restaurant takes care of all his rights, it will be harder to impose responsibility on the company. In the end the employer also has responsibility when he hires a worker. You cannot simply rely on a manpower company that says he is legal."

Even so, business owners are convinced that the authorities' heavy hand is directed at them rather than at manpower companies, because they are easier to catch and the companies disappear under the radar. "These are cases that happen all the time, the companies simply disappear and the state refuses to deal with them," says the same source. "None of them is punished. Some businesses simply discovered that some of the companies are not even registered. These are sometimes fictitious companies."

Attorney David Angel, who specializes in immigration law, notes that in practice things are more complicated: in many cases the connection between the manpower company and the illegal resident is unclear, or there is simply not enough evidence to establish responsibility on the company's part. And when there is no evidence, it is very hard to prove it.

And the punishments? Not simple. According to Attorney Angel, Palestinian workers are in a particularly severe legal category. Unlike a foreign worker without a visa, employing a Palestinian illegal resident triggers multiple sanctions under the Entry into Israel Law, which was designed to address security threats.

The consequences for a business owner caught employing a Palestinian illegal resident can be devastating. Closing the business is only the beginning. Beyond that, they may face a criminal case, detention until the end of proceedings and even actual prison time. As noted, in 2024 the Knesset approved an amendment to the Entry into Israel Law that increased the penalties for transporting, housing or employing illegal residents. Under the temporary order, minimum fines were set at 10,000 shekels for an individual and 40,000 shekels for a corporation, and prison sentences can reach seven years in aggravated circumstances. At the same time, a civil lawsuit can also be filed, which may end in fines and compensation totaling thousands of shekels.

"You cannot go to the police at every interview"

How can businesses protect themselves if they were tricked? In one case that reached the court, the judges ruled: "The prospective employer can fulfill his duty to investigate the suspicion by requiring the foreign worker to present identifying documents, including a work permit in Israel, and by carefully checking the information details in those documents."

What is that duty when there is a real difficulty in fulfilling it? "You need to examine the substance. Quite often it turns out that the business owner paid the worker directly and dealt with him the whole time, even though someone mediated between them. But the business owner is responsible for him and he needs to check the worker and not do a superficial check," explains Attorney Angel.

However, he notes that there are cases in which the business owner has a real legal defense. When a worker identified himself with an identity card that appeared completely valid, and only later turned out to be forged, the employer can argue that he acted in good faith. To strengthen that defense, Angel recommends two simple steps: sign a contract with the manpower company, in which it undertakes not to place illegal workers, and draw up a contract with the worker himself, in which he confirms his identity. If these are in place, the chances of escaping sanctions are significantly higher.

But every rule has an exception. In May, a 30-day closure order was issued to the popular Nua'male restaurant on Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv, for the second time in a year, after the place was found to be employing an illegal resident. The case stands out especially because the restaurant owner says she carried out all the required checks, verified the identity card with the police, opened a file with National Insurance, arranged all the deductions, and in the end it turned out that the worker had forged the document. The police knew and still refused to reopen the restaurant.

"For me he was Israeli in every respect," says Noam Levi, owner of Nua'male. "I checked with the police and was told that everything was in order and that such a person lives in Beersheba. What else could I have done?" In retrospect, she understood that the worker had stolen someone else's identity card and replaced the photo. Levi adds that the state does not give clear instructions. "You cannot tell us to go to the police every time we conduct a job interview. It is not practical for anyone. And anyway, why do I, the small independent business owner, get everything dumped on me?"

"As for what comes next, I am considering my next steps. My business was hit with a 30-day closure order, I was hurt financially, I had to recruit new workers, teach them the recipes and send others on unpaid leave. I פשוט lost trust."

Forged work permits for thousands of shekels

So how do those illegal residents get into Israel? In a variety of illegal ways, say sources familiar with the details. First, the separation fence stretches for hundreds of kilometers, but large sections are not fenced at all. According to military sources, "there are places where, by decision, there is no fence, kilometers upon kilometers. There the passage is almost free. In the end, it is a political decision and not a military one to leave the border like that, open."

Even where a fence exists, it is sometimes described as a "dumb fence," relatively easy to cross using ladders and ropes. A State Comptroller report published at the end of 2025 noted that illegal residents exploit a brief opportunity and reach the heart of Jerusalem within minutes.

Another route is forgery and manipulation of the entry permit system. According to various estimates, most enter using forged or legitimate work permits costing between 700 and 2,500 shekels per permit. Others use forged identity cards, which cost between 500 and 1,500 shekels.

Investigations conducted recently by the Internal Police Investigations Department exposed a police officer who forged more than 100 permits for Palestinians, using police stamps and presenting the residents as needing medical treatment. According to the indictment, he planned to issue about 300 additional permits.

In another case, a former senior official in the Civil Administration forged entry permits for payment and, after leaving his post, continued a parallel criminal activity.

The most serious affair exposed so far concerns Border Police fighters who turned checkpoints into open gates. Wiretaps conducted by the Internal Police Investigations Department revealed prior coordination with Palestinian intermediaries and instructions on how to pass illegal residents without inspection and collect cash payment, sometimes hidden inside an identity card, and sometimes handed over during fake inspections. "The batch arrived, come on, bring the money fast," one of the fighters was heard saying in a recording published by the department. In one case, passage for seven illegal residents in one vehicle was agreed upon without any security inspection.

Civilian security guards in the settlement of Givat Ze'ev were also suspected of smuggling Palestinians through a gate intended for residents only, in exchange for tens of thousands of shekels.

The IDF says it is fighting the phenomenon, but its tools are limited. "We are stopping many from crossing the fence. We are talking about hundreds of Palestinians every week. But is that enough? No," say military sources. "The enforcement difficulty also stems from operational overload: as long as the fighting in Gaza and in the north continues, the number of battalions available to secure the seam line is limited. In the end this is a huge area where we are required to do a lot, and there is not always enough manpower."

"Opposed to employing illegal residents, but there are not enough workers"

Is there a solution to the phenomenon? According to a source familiar with the details, the answer was on the table from day one. Early in the war, the security establishment proposed an alternative route: to allow Palestinian laborers to enter for work, but under strict supervision that includes entering through a biometric checkpoint in the morning, biometric exit at the end of the day and a requirement to return home every night. The goal was to create a mechanism that would on the one hand allow the Palestinian population to maintain a reasonable economic existence, and on the other hand provide full control over who enters and who does not.

But the proposal was not implemented and fell for political reasons. The reason, according to that source, is simple: "Everyone gathered around the concept of a paradigm, what existed before October 7 could not continue."

The problem is that the reality created is much more severe than the one that existed before the war. According to him, tens of thousands of Palestinians now enter every day through breaches in the fence without monitoring or tracking, and some do not return at night.

On the same subject, a study conducted at INSS examined whether there is a link between the entry of Palestinian laborers to work in Israel and terrorist attacks. According to the data, during the period between 2007 and October 6, 2023, only three attacks were carried out by Palestinians holding work permits. In those attacks, four of the 118 people murdered in attacks during that period were killed, with the researcher including fire from Gaza.

Enforcement against employers has achieved some results, but at the current scale, estimated as noted at about 50,000 illegal residents, it is a drop in the ocean. According to police data presented at a meeting of the Knesset's National Security Committee in early May, since the start of 2026 about 3,300 indictments have been filed against illegal residents and about 680 indictments against those who transported, employed or housed them. In October, data were presented showing that from the beginning of 2024 through October 2025, there were 14,321 and 2,278 cases, respectively.

Even when matters reach the stage of an indictment, enforcement also appears to fail at times. One judge testified that even returning illegal residents to the checkpoint is not carried out consistently. According to him, there have already been cases in which he encountered in the courthouse yard an illegal resident who had been tried before him only minutes earlier.

"The scope of raids is limited relative to the number of illegal residents in Israel," says a source familiar with the details. "It does not stop anything."

A State Comptroller report from April 2026 confirms this, pointing to a "policy of non-enforcement of illegal entry." The explanation, according to the same source: "We cannot allow unemployment there to surge, that could turn against us."

According to him, the solution still exists, but political courage is needed: "Instead, the government of Israel chose not to choose because of political considerations, and now it is dealing with the consequences of that non-decision."

The Renovation Contractors Association also says it tried to propose a solution to the government, but did not receive a response. "I approached several times different people, the most senior ones, and suggested that they at least bring back Palestinians over the age of 40, with no security record, with a family," says Siv. "They replied to me, take this off the agenda. So I asked them to propose another solution. There is no answer to that either. The government's policy is simply not to approve the return of Palestinians under any circumstances. I oppose employing illegal residents, but there are not enough foreign workers. What do they want us to do, not make a living?"

Responses: The Labor Ministry, which grants licenses to manpower companies, said: "The issue of employing illegal residents is not within the authority of the Labor Ministry. Handling this matter is the responsibility of the Israel Police. It should be clarified that the Labor Ministry is responsible only for enforcing social labor laws." The Prime Minister's Office did not respond, and the Israel Police did not provide data on the scope of enforcement and its focal points across the country.