The Israeli electronic banking provider SHVA has published details of credit card usage in the larger cities in Israel, as well as communities in the north and south of Israel, to show which are most affected by the war.
The data shows that the cities of Sderot and Kiryat Shmona have suffered the most from the war, with their credit card payments dropping by more than 80%.
In other cities in the south and north, such as Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva, Netivot, and Nahariya, credit card payments dropped by between 30% and 40%.
Large cities on the coastal plains and in the central district are showing signs of recovery and returning to routine despite the ongoing war. For example, Tel Aviv lost 40% of its credit card payments in the first week of the war, but has managed to recover over the past two weeks and now stands at just 20% less than its usual value of online transactions for this period.
Tali Hollenberg, the vice president of marketing, sales, and business development of SHVA, analyzes the trend: "In general, we see in this data a trend of recovery from the trauma of the first week of the war, and return to a limited degree of routine despite the war. This contributes tremendously to the continued development of businesses throughout Israel."
"The data also shows that the drastic drop in electronic payments is taking place in cities where the residents have been evacuated, such as Sderot and Kiryat Shmona, or in areas that have been bombarded the most, such as Ashkelon, Ashdod, Rishon Lezion, Nahariya, and Netivot. We are seeing the city of Rishon Lezion, which has been one of the cities most targeted by rocket attacks, still struggling to return to the level of activity of the cities close to it in the coastal plain and central district. Its commercial activity is still lower than that of Ness Ziona, Rehovot, or Holon."
"The city of Eilat, despite all of its hospitality businesses being jam-packed, is also showing a drop in commercial activity. We believe this to be because individuals evacuated to that city are not on vacation, but rather recovering from the trauma of the attack. Their consumer habits are not the same as those vacationing in the city."