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Global Development in Israel: A Data-Driven Overview

Israel plays a distinctive role in global development. It is both a donor and a technology exporter. This page tracks Israel’s performance across four pillars: official aid, tax policy, climate action, and trade. Each section relies on the latest verified international data.

Aid: Official Development Assistance (ODA)

Israel runs its foreign aid programme through MASHAV, its international development agency. The government founded MASHAV in 1958. It shares agricultural, water, and health expertise with developing countries.

In 2024, Israel’s ODA totalled USD 324.2 million (preliminary OECD data). That figure represents just 0.06% of gross national income (GNI). It marks a 33.4% real-terms decline from 2023. Israel remains far below the UN’s 0.7% ODA/GNI target. No OECD DAC member has consistently met that goal in recent years, either.

Israel delivers most of its aid bilaterally. Bilateral channels made up 90.9% of total ODA in 2023. The remainder flows through multilateral organisations. Aid priorities include agriculture, water management, health, and gender equality training.

Globally, ODA is shrinking too. DAC members cut total aid by 23.1% in 2025, the steepest drop on record. Humanitarian ODA worldwide fell 35.8% that year. Israel’s decline therefore mirrors a broader global retreat from foreign aid commitments, though its ratio still lags the DAC average by a wide margin.

Tax: Competitiveness and Transparency

Israel ranked 8th out of 38 OECD countries on the 2025 International Tax Competitiveness Index. That is two places lower than in 2024. The index measures corporate, individual, consumption, and property tax structures.

On corruption, a factor closely tied to tax integrity, Israel scored 62 out of 100 on the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index. It ranked 35th worldwide. This score has slipped slightly since 2024, when Israel scored 64.

Sound tax administration supports development finance. Countries with transparent tax systems collect more domestic revenue. That revenue, in turn, can fund public services and reduce aid dependency over time.

Climate: Emissions, Targets, and Progress

Israel emitted 6.79 tonnes of CO2 per capita in 2022, the latest full-year figure available. That is above the global average.

Under its 2021 climate pledge, Israel committed to cutting emissions 27% by 2030, compared with 2015 levels. It also set a long-term target of net-zero emissions by 2050. However, the Ministry of Environmental Protection estimated in 2023 that current policies would only achieve a 12% cut by 2030. The country is therefore off track for its own target.

Israel plans to phase out coal-fired power by 2026. It aims to reach 30% renewable energy in its power mix by 2030. Independent analysts note this goal falls short of what a 1.5°C-aligned pathway requires, which is closer to 68–83% renewables by 2030.

A national carbon pricing mechanism and clean-transport investments form part of Israel’s 2022–2026 climate action plan. Still, the country’s continued reliance on natural gas, including rising gas exports to Egypt and Jordan, complicates its long-term decarbonisation path.

Trade: Exports, Imports, and Balance

Israel recorded a USD 36.7 billion product trade deficit in 2025. That gap widened 16.1% from the USD 31.6 billion deficit in 2024. Diamonds, electronics, and chemical products dominate Israeli exports. Oil and rough diamonds top its imports.

The United States remains Israel’s largest single trading partner. It absorbed roughly 28% of Israeli exports in 2025. The two countries traded USD 54.6 billion in goods and services that year. The US ran a USD 7.07 billion trade deficit with Israel, importing more than it exported in return.

Beyond bilateral trade, Israel scores low on broader international engagement metrics. The Sustainable Development Report’s Index of Countries’ Support to UN-Based Multilateralism ranked Israel 190th out of 193 countries in 2024, among the five lowest-ranked states globally. That index tracks UN treaty ratification, voting patterns, and financial contributions to the UN system, alongside other trade and diplomatic engagement.

Humanitarian and Aid-Access Context

Israel’s development profile cannot be separated entirely from the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Since a ceasefire began on 10 October 2025, reported conditions have shown mixed signals.

Israel’s Coordinate of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) reports that approximately 1.78 million tonnes of food entered Gaza between October 2025 and June 2026. That is roughly three times the volume the World Food Programme identified as necessary. COGAT also reports that staple food prices fell about 72% over the same period, and that over 18,000 tonnes of medicine and medical supplies entered Gaza.

At the same time, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that access restrictions, displacement, and casualties have continued inside Gaza during the ceasefire. Human Rights Watch and Médecins Sans Frontières have separately reported that aid volumes and distribution access remain constrained in parts of the territory, and that some international NGOs faced new operating restrictions in 2026.

These sourced but differing accounts reflect an evolving and contested situation. RYB presents them here as reported facts, without endorsing either characterisation, and encourages readers to consult primary sources directly for the fullest picture.

Looking Forward

Israel faces a clear development choice ahead. Its ODA/GNI ratio sits well below international norms. Closing that gap would require a substantial, sustained funding increase.

Climate policy also needs acceleration. Current renewable energy targets fall short of Paris Agreement pathways. Faster investment in solar capacity could close much of that gap by 2030.

Trade relationships remain concentrated around a few key partners, led by the United States. Diversifying trade ties could reduce exposure to single-market shocks.

Finally, humanitarian access in Gaza will likely stay central to how Israel’s global development role is perceived internationally. Continued, verifiable reporting from multiple sources will remain essential for tracking progress on the ground.

Together, these four pillars, aid, tax, climate, and trade, offer a fuller picture than any single metric alone. RYB will continue to update this profile as new data becomes available.

For a deeper look at Israel’s progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, see our Israel SDGs page. For the global picture behind Israel’s aid numbers, see our Official Development Assistance hub.

Sources and References

Flag of Israel

Israel
State of Israel
Yisra’el

Population
9,402,617 (2024 est.)
9,043,387 (2023)
8,787,045 (2021)
8,424,904 (2018)
8,299,706 (2017)
Capital: Jerusalem
Internet country code: .il

Government
Government Press Office: gov.il/government-press-office
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: mfa.gov.il
Ministry of Tourism: gov.il/ministry_of_tourism
Central Bureau of Statistics: gov.il/central_bureau_of_statistics

UN
Israel Mission to UN: new.embassies.gov.il/unitednations
Israel in UN/Geneva: embassies.gov.il/UnGeneva
UNESCO Israel: whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/il
UNICEF Israel: unicef.org.il

State of Israel

Israel has become a regional economic and military powerhouse, leveraging its prosperous high-tech sector, large defense industry, and concerns about Iran to foster partnerships around the world. The State of Israel was established in 1948. The UN General Assembly proposed in 1947 partitioning the British Mandate for Palestine into an Arab and Jewish state. The Jews accepted the proposal, but the local Arabs and the Arab states rejected the UN plan and launched a war. The Arabs were subsequently defeated in the 1947-1949 war that followed the UN proposal and the British withdrawal. Israel joined the UN in 1949 and saw rapid population growth, primarily due to Jewish refugee migration from Europe and the Middle East. Israel and its Arab neighbors fought wars in 1956, 1967, and 1973, and Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Israel took control of the West Bank, the eastern part of Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights in the course of the 1967 war. It ceded the Sinai back to Egypt in the 1979-1982 period but has continued to administer the other territories through military authorities. Israel and Palestinian officials signed interim agreements in the 1990s that created a period of Palestinian self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. The most recent formal efforts between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to negotiate final status issues occurred in 2013 and 2014, and the US continues its efforts to advance peace. Israel signed the US-brokered normalization agreements (the Abraham Accords) with Bahrain, the UAE, and Morocco in 2020 and reached an agreement with Sudan in 2021. Immigration to Israel continues, with more than 44,000 estimated new immigrants, mostly Jewish, in the first 11 months of 2023.

Former Prime Minister Benjamin NETANYAHU returned to office in 2022, continuing his dominance of Israel’s political landscape at the head of Israel’s most rightwing and religious government. NETANYAHU previously served as premier from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021, becoming Israel’s longest serving prime minister.

On 7 October 2023, HAMAS militants launched a combined unguided rocket and ground terrorist attack from Gaza into southern Israel. The same day Israel’s Air Force launched air strikes inside Gaza and initiated a sustained air campaign against HAMAS targets across the Gaza Strip. The following day, NETANYAHU formally declared war on HAMAS, and on 28 October, the Israel Defense Forces launched a large-scale ground assault inside Gaza.

The Israeli economy has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last 30 years, led by cutting-edge high-tech sectors. Offshore gas discoveries in the Mediterranean place Israel at the center of a potential regional natural gas market. In 2022, a US-brokered agreement between Israel and Lebanon established their maritime boundary, allowing Israel to begin production on additional gas fields in the Mediterranean. However, Israel’s economic development has been uneven. Structural issues such as low labor-force participation among religious and minority populations, low workforce productivity, high costs for housing and consumer staples, and high income inequality concern both economists and the general population. The current war with Hamas disrupted Israel’s solid economic fundamentals, but it is not likely to have long-term structural implications for the economy.

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