JERUSALEM, July 4 -- The number of foreign tourists visiting Israel dropped by 74.9 percent in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year, according to the statistics issued by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

In January-June, the number of tourist arrivals in Israel amounted to 495,300, seeing a sharp decline from the record of about 1.97 million in the first six months of 2023.

According to the data, since the outbreak of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip in early October last year, the monthly number of tourist arrivals in Israel has been below 100,000, except for May.

  - Xinhua