JERUSALEM - Israel's war with Hamas led to a steep decline in tourism to Israel in October, official data showed on Monday.

Nearly 99,000 visitors, most designated as tourists, came to Israel in October, versus 369,000 in October 2022 and 485,000 in pre-pandemic October 2019, the Central Bureau of Statistics said.

Some 72.2% of those who came last month arrived for the Jewish festival of Sukkot in the first week of October, which ended on Oct. 7, the day Hamas gunmen crossed from Gaza and rampaged through Israeli towns, sparking the war.

Militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel and Israel has responded with air strikes in Gaza as well as a ground offensive.

With it being unclear how long the war will last, tourism - a key growth driver - is expected to recover slowly, as it did after past conflicts and after COVID.

Over the first 10 months of 2023, 3.15 million people have visited Israel, up from 2.2 million a year earlier but below 4.01 million in the same period of 2019.

The bureau also said that 454,000 Israelis left the country in October, down from 828,000 a year ago, a month when many people travel abroad for the Sukkot holiday. REUTERS