At least 50 Israeli physicians left the country in the first 15 months after the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 and Israel's subsequent genocide in Gaza, a new survey shows.
The survey, which was conducted by the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) in 32 hospitals and medical centres across Israel, showed a trend of physicians emigrating out of Israel, with Israeli health officials warning of the grave consequences this trend could have on Israel's public health system.
The IMA published the survey during an emergency meeting on physician emigration, following a recent Tel Aviv University report that found that between 2023 and 2025, 1,369 physicians left Israel for more than a year.
According to the IMA, the professional organisation representing most physicians in Israel, in addition to the 50 physicians it found left the country, another 53 physicians went to specialisations abroad and did not return to Israel within the agreed-upon timeframe.
Israeli news website Ynet, which published the survey on Monday, reported that certain medical fields were particularly hurt by the emigration of physicians, citing, among others, gastroenterology, oncology, internal medicine and psychiatry.
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According to the report, the four major reasons for physicians to leave the country were the security situation in Israel, personal reasons, seeking professional promotions and better pay.
However, an Israeli psychiatrist said at the conference that higher salaries are at the bottom of emigrant physicians' wish list.
Instead, the unstable security situation, concern for their children's future, work fatigue and broader professional options were the primary reasons for the exodus, the psychiatrist said at the conference.
The Israeli psychiatrist said that since the 7 October attacks, "we've been dealing with a simply unbelievable number of people seeking mental health help, and that includes doctors as well", adding that is "one of the reasons for leaving".
According to ERAN, an Israeli NGO dedicated to providing emotional and mental health support, about one quarter of all Israelis showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the last three years, with the group saying it received hundreds of thousands of calls from people seeking help.
Zion Hagay the IMA chairman, said that the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany are the main destinations for Israeli physicians, adding that "Israeli doctors are sought after worldwide".
Hagay added that the emigration of physicians is "a strategic threat to Israel", vowing to create a forum dedicated to convincing Israeli physicians to come back to Israel.
A wider phenomenon
The emigration of physicians is part of a wider phenomenon of emigration out of Israel, as Tel Aviv University showed recently that close to 270,000 people have left Israel since 2023, with highly educated Israelis overrepresented among the departures.
The growing numbers of physicians emigrating out Israel, health officials said on Monday, is very concerning not only because young health personnel are leaving the country, but also because of the growing number of experienced physicians who also leave.
According to a Tel Aviv University report, 20 percent of the physicians who left the country between 2023 and 2025 are over 45 years old, as 270 experienced physicians emigrated during those years.
This is a sharp increase compared to the previous decade, when 14 percent of physicians leaving Israel were above 45.
Overall, there was a spike of 94 percent in physician emigration from Israel between 2023 and 2025, compared to the previous decade, when between 2013 and 2015, 705 physicians left the country.
According to Ynet, the emigration of both young and experienced physicians is of great concern to Israel, as 24 percent of specialists in the country's public hospitals are nearing the age of retirement.
The emigration of interns, an Israeli health official said on Monday, "harms the healthcare system in the medium and long term," adding that the emigration of specialists, who are supposed to educate the next generation of Israeli physicians, "will also erode the excellence of the healthcare system".
As the Israeli population grew in the last Jewish year by 1.2 percent to a general population of some 10,305,000 people, the availability of physicians is of great importance for the country.
Last week, the Ministry of Health said that in 2035, Israel will need some 32,000 specialists compared to some 20,000 Israeli specialists currently working in Israel.
However, the emigration of physicians is not the only concern for the Israeli healthcare system, as in recent years a growing number of physicians from the Palestinian community in Israel have been suffering from racist attacks.
Israeli politicians and pundits are calling for a reduction in the number of Palestinian staff in Israeli hospitals, despite the shortages in the workforce, as one Israeli pundit said last month that Palestinian medical staff members "are poisoning Jews".
In addition, for Palestinian medical students and graduates, finding a job in the Israeli healthcare system is extremely challenging, as a recent report showed that some 4,000 Palestinian graduates can't find a healthcare post in Israel.
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