(JNS) Over the next few months, Israelis will continue to encounter foreign workers, mostly from Thailand and India, as caregivers and in workplaces such as supermarkets and car repair shops, as well as in agriculture and construction.

The foreigners are replacing Palestinian workers, most of whom have not been allowed to enter Israel for security reasons since the war began following the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Before the war, an estimated 190,000 Palestinians worked in Israel, 95,000 of them in construction, industry sources say.

Most were from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), although some commuted daily from the Gaza Strip. Wages in Israel are significantly higher than salaries in Judea and Samaria or Gaza.

The war sparked a labor shortage in Israel, with many construction projects suspended for lack of workers. Since the war began, only 8,000 to 10,000 Palestinians have been permitted to continue working in Israel, while some 30,000 work in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

The government decided to replace the Palestinian workers with foreigners, primarily from Asia. More than 86,000 foreign workers have come to Israel since the war began, half of them in construction.

Even before the war, there was a labor shortage in construction. Construction companies said they could use tens of thousands more workers, which would speed up the pace of building across the country, of housing and light rail systems.

In recent months, Israel has increased the number of foreign workers coming from Thailand, China, Vietnam and Sri Lanka to replace many of these Palestinian laborers. But the bureaucracy to bring them to Israel takes months and Israeli consulates abroad cannot process them quickly enough.

“Israeli consulates around the world are unable to handle tens of thousands of applications from foreign workers who wish to come to work in Israel,” Eli Yifrach, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry’s Committee for Foreign Workers, told JNS.

According to the Population and Immigration Authority, in 2025, Israel issued 61,000 permits to foreign workers, bringing the total to over 227,000. This includes tens of thousands of caregivers, mostly from the Philippines.

Unlike the Palestinian workers, however, the foreign workers stay in Israel for several years at a time. Their employers must provide housing for them and they must be able to buy food they are used to eating. The companies also provide health insurance.

There is also often a language barrier, although translating apps help with communication. Supermarket chains have begun importing thousands of workers from Thailand to work in supermarkets across the country.

A Carrefour supermarket spokesman told Israel Television’s Kan 11 that competition for the jobs in Israel is fierce because salaries are significantly higher than in Thailand and thousands more workers are ready to come at a moment’s notice.

“Bureaucracy imposed by the Population Authority and Ministry of Justice is delaying the arrival of about 40,000 foreign workers to the construction sector,” Eldad Nitzan, the chairman of the Foreign Manpower Companies Union in the Israeli Chamber of Commerce, told journalists.

“The current pace of worker recruitment won’t resolve the severe shortage stalling hundreds of projects nationwide.” He explained that 200 foreign labor corporations in the construction sector could bring workers from Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand within three months.

He also said that motivation is high among the foreign workers, who have a high work ethic and barely take breaks.

However, Ohad Amar of the Kav LaOved hotline for workers’ rights said bringing foreign workers from Asia presents more challenges than hiring Palestinian workers.

“The main difference is that migrant workers don’t have families, communities, or anyone to support them here,” he told JNS. “In some cases, the manpower companies that bring them hold them in conditions of modern slavery, with employers holding their passports and restricting their movements.”

In some cases, he said, workers sleep in buildings under construction or in garages that are not meant to be lived in. He said some workers pay more than a year’s salary to manpower companies that organize the visas and bring them to Israel. That means the first year here, they are basically working to recoup their expenses on arrival.

At the same time, he said, Asian workers are here to stay and their number is likely to increase over the next few years.

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