Technology sector exports represented 48.3% of total Israeli exports in 2022, amounting to $71 billion (Shutterstock)

Technology sector exports in Israel declined by 7.8% during the last quarter of last month, with the Palestinian resistance launching Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, to 4.1 billion shekels ($1.1 billion), according to data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics issued on Tuesday.

Despite the decline in the sector due to the war on the Gaza Strip, it accounted for about 77% of Israeli exports in the aforementioned period.

Average salaries in the sector exceeded 29,000 shekels ($8,000) last November, while they jumped approximately 10% over the past year.

The sector employs about 195,000 people, representing 10.4% of the total Israeli workers, and it is the fastest growing sector in Israel in terms of employment, according to what Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.

The unemployment

Despite this, more than 230,000 people have applied for unemployment benefits since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7, and 150,604 Israelis have been forced to take unpaid leave, while companies struggle to deal with the economic repercussions of the war. .

It is noteworthy that the high-tech sector constituted 18.1% of Israel’s GDP in 2022, becoming its largest contributor, according to data from the Israeli Innovation Authority, and the sector’s production doubled to 290 billion shekels ($78.6 billion) in the same year, from 126 billion shekels ( $34.15 billion) in 2012.

According to the data, high-tech sector exports represented 48.3% of total Israeli exports in 2022, with a value of $71 billion, a growth of 107% compared to what was recorded in 2012, according to official data according to 2022 data.

Regression factors

The expert in Israeli affairs, Ahmed Al-Bahnasi, said in a comment to Al Jazeera Net that the decline in exports is affected by several factors.

Among them: summoning a large number of workers in the Gaza Strip to military service to join the war on the Gaza Strip as reserve soldiers, and the Israeli government’s slowness in providing appropriate compensation to workers in the Gaza Strip and for its inputs and outputs;

As a result of increasing war expenses.

He pointed out that the global boycott movement of Israeli products, as a result of the scenes emerging from the Gaza Strip due to the aggression, was a reason for the decline in exports.

Al-Bahnasi expected that Israeli exports from the technology sector would continue to decline, given the delay in government support to support the sector, in addition to the fact that the newly normalized countries were looking forward to more huge investments in this sector, but they were disrupted due to the war.

Source: Al Jazeera + Israeli press