An investigation by "Arabi Post" has revealed that Israeli soldiers who took part in the genocidal war on Gaza have been traveling for tourism and leisure to countries such as Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, and Morocco. The investigation examined a number of Facebook groups dedicated to Israeli tourism in these countries.
Many Israeli tourists share their experiences in these groups and raise numerous questions about how safe these Arab destinations are amid the war their country is waging on Gaza and other countries in the region.
Our investigation covered dozens of Israeli Facebook accounts active in these groups. What stood out, however, was that most of the accounts were private, and their content could not be accessed even on other platforms such as Instagram—an apparent indication that Israeli soldiers planning to travel abroad for leisure and tourism are keen to avoid being pursued or having their activities tracked following their participation in military operations since October 2023. Nevertheless, we were able to access some accounts belonging to Israeli soldiers who had themselves documented their participation in the war on Gaza.
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Leisure in Arab Cities After the War in Gaza
Among the many Israeli tourists who visited Jordan, Egypt, and the UAE for leisure, our investigation identified an Israeli soldier named Tamir Ovadya, who shared photos in the "ירדן למטיילים" (Jordan for Travelers) group in May 2026 from his trip to Petra, Aqaba, Wadi Rum, and other tourist destinations in the Kingdom. He also posted a review praising a Jordanian travel agent named "Mahmoud Abu Sarhan," who maintains accounts under different names.
Abu Sarhan appears in photos and videos with most Israeli tourists who enter Jordan for tourism through the airport or border crossings. They praise his services, his dedication to helping them, and his command of Hebrew. He is also one of the administrators of the same tourism group on Facebook, where he uses the Hebrew name "Amit Bilbil," but the handle of the private account confirms that it belongs to mahmoud.abusarhan.73. Other Israeli accounts also administer the "Jordan for Travelers" group.
Soldier Tamir documented his participation in the war on the Gaza Strip by posting a collection of photos and videos on his Instagram account on November 7, 2024, during the military ground operations in the Strip.
Before visiting Jordan, Tamir posted photos on his account from his sightseeing and leisure trips to other Arab cities, such as Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt and Dubai in the UAE.
Another Israeli soldier identified in the investigation, Amit Haliva, posted in the "Jordan for Travelers" group on March 22, 2025, expressing his happiness with his trip to Jordan and praising the Jordanian travel agent "Mahmoud Abu Sarhan," who speaks Hebrew and English fluently. Soldier Amit Haliva's account also shows that he had previously visited Sharm El-Sheikh.
Before his leisure trip to Jordan, soldier Haliva shared on his Instagram accounts a collection of photos and videos from his participation in the war on Gaza in October 2023. He also posted a video on his TikTok account showing Israeli tanks on the Gaza border, surrounded by Israeli soldiers dancing and preparing for war. Haliva captioned the video: "We are the most moral army in the world."
A third Israeli soldier, Noam Bernstein, shared a post in the "Jordan for Travelers" group on March 20, 2026, documenting his visit to Jordan and praising Abu Sarhan for the assistance and services he provided during his leisure trip. Bernstein's account indicates that he serves in the Israeli military, as he had posted photos of himself in 2023 and 2024 wearing his military uniform and riding in an Israeli armored vehicle.
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"Are These Countries Safe? They're Better Than Europe!"
In many of the tourism groups monitored, numerous Israelis asked how safe Arab countries such as Jordan and Morocco would be if they traveled there, and whether they might face danger from local residents who "support Palestine." Some responses encouraged them to travel, describing these countries as "safer for Israelis than Europe, and even safer than Israel itself"—a reference to the growing rejection of Israel in the West and around the world following its three-year genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.
For example, in one of the groups, an Israeli woman named "Shira Cohen," who publicly identifies herself on her account as working for the Israeli military, asked how safe a destination such as Jordan was, saying: "Is it safe to travel to Jordan today? Have you experienced any discriminatory treatment toward Israelis?" She received responses encouraging her to travel, including:
"I just returned from Jordan two days ago. It was a wonderful trip. The attitude toward Israelis is good, perhaps even better than in Europe."
"Safer than Israel itself. There are border-crossing staff who speak Hebrew."
"I was there in December, and it was a wonderful experience. I didn't feel any hatred or fear. In fact, the situation is more difficult in Europe."
Meanwhile, Jordanian travel agents such as "Mahmoud Abu Sarhan" and "Mohammed Salem Al-Mutawwar" reassured Shira Cohen in comments on the same post that Jordan was safe, welcomed her, and offered her their assistance.
What Do We Know About the Scale of Israeli Travel to These Arab ?Countries During the War
There are no official figures showing precisely how many Israeli tourists have traveled to these countries since October 2023. However, a compilation of official Israeli data from the Israel Airports Authority and the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics indicates that the calculable measure of Israeli travel to or through Jordan and Egypt, combined with an estimate of visits to the UAE, amounted to approximately 3.30 million movements or visits from October 2023 through the end of July 2026.
This figure breaks down into approximately 111,400 in the final quarter of 2023, 956,000 in 2024, 1.399 million in 2025, and 836,200 between January and July 2026. The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics has scheduled the release of August data for September 6, 2026.
The largest share of this measure comes from land-border crossings with Jordan and Egypt. Israel recorded 82,500 outbound land-border movements in October–December 2023, followed by 733,100 in 2024, 1.017 million in 2025, and 666,100 between January and July 2026. In 2024, these movements comprised approximately 437,200 departures through crossings with Jordan and 295,900 through Taba into Egypt. In 2025, Taba recorded 448,800 departures, leaving approximately 568,300 movements through Jordanian crossings after subtracting Taba from the total number of outbound land-border movements.
However, this data series does not measure the purpose of travel. The definition used by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) covers Israeli citizens holding Israeli passports, and does not specify whether everyone who crossed the land borders into Egypt and Jordan did so for tourism or instead used Jordanian and Egyptian airports as alternative departure points during periods when Israeli airports were closed amid the war. It also includes Israeli citizens residing abroad when they cross using an Israeli passport. Therefore, not all of these movements can be described as "tourism."
As for the UAE, the Israel Airports Authority does not publish the number of "Israeli tourists" traveling there. Instead, it reports passenger traffic on routes between the two countries in both directions and across all nationalities. This traffic amounted to 115,519 passenger movements in October–December 2023, 891,704 in 2024, 1,527,770 in 2025, and 680,572 between January and July 2026. To approximate the number of actual visits, we divided the passenger movements by two to convert them into equivalent round trips, then applied a 50% factor based on a Bank of Israel observation that roughly half of those counted in UAE passenger traffic were Israelis continuing onward to other destinations or non-Israeli passengers.
This yields an estimate of approximately 28,900 visits in the final quarter of 2023, 222,900 in 2024, 381,900 in 2025, and 170,100 between January and July 2026. These are methodological estimates rather than official tourist figures, particularly for periods when Israeli airports were disrupted during the war with Iran.
In June 2025, Israeli airspace was closed to incoming and outgoing traffic, while land crossings into Sinai and Jordan remained operational. Israeli media documented travelers using Jordan and Sinai as alternative routes while Ben Gurion Airport was closed. Therefore, part of the increase in the Jordan and Egypt figures may represent transit traffic to airports or other destinations rather than tourist stays in those two countries.
Morocco and Bahrain were not included in the total of 3.30 million Israeli travelers because there is no consistent public data series identifying Israeli visitors throughout the entire period. For the final quarter of 2023, the only figures that can be verified are 4,829 direct air-passenger movements with Morocco and 1,090 with Bahrain, both of which likewise include travel in both directions. Accordingly, the most appropriate overall figure to publish is an indicator of the scale of Israeli travel to these destinations, rather than a precise count of unique Israeli tourists.