With another month left in 2025, more workers have already been killed in work accidents than during the whole of 2024. That troubling statistic was highlighted by Att. Diana Baron, research and public policy director at the workers’ rights group Kav LaOved (Workers Hotline), during a discussion on Monday, December 1,  in the Knesset’s Labor Committee on safety in the construction sector.

Medical teams at a construction site in Ramat Hasharon. Two workers from Uzbekistan were seriously injured and dead in the place, November 26, 2025 (Photo: Magen David Adom)

According to data from Kav LaOved, since the beginning of the year 73 workers have been killed, more than 40 of them in construction—compared to 72 killed last year (35 in construction). Dr. Hadas Tagari, head of the Coalition to Fight Work Accidents, added that the number of seriously injured workers has risen this year significantly compared to previous years—and that this is likely to affect the death toll by the end of the year.

Tagari noted that since the start of the war with Gaza, Palestinian workers from the occupied West Bank, once a significant portion of Israel’s construction workers, have stopped receiving permits to work in Israel. However, despite the drop in the percentage of Palestinian workers in the sector, their share among those killed in construction has not significantly decreased, Tagari said, suggesting that many workers are still entering Israel from the Palestinian Authority and being employed under unsafe and unregulated conditions.

Acting committee chair, MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash), emphasized her long history of addressing work accidents as a lawmaker. “Unfortunately, many measures on the agenda are being delayed again and again, and the ones paying the price are the workers,” she said. “In the previous discussion we requested answers and updates from several government ministries. Some provided responses, others didn’t. Even today—some ministries didn’t send representatives to the discussion. This is what happens when the issue is not a top priority for decision-makers and budget allocators. But civilian disasters claim more lives and must be placed at the top of the priority list.”

According to Zo Haderekh, government ministries have been working for about a year and a half on regulations that include rules for safety training for foreign workers, and that the regulations are already with the Justice Ministry. A representative of the Justice Ministry reported that work on the regulations is in the final stretch and could be completed within about one to two months.

MK Touma-Sliman, demanded that the safety regulations be submitted to the committee by the end of the month. “We already have a two-year delay, and the statistics of migrant workers falling to their deaths among the fatalities are rising,” she said. “You have until the end of the month to send this draft to the committee, no more, and we’ll follow up on it.”