The Ministry of Health submitted its 2025 smoking report to the Knesset today, in accordance with the law requiring reporting on the health damage caused by smoking tobacco products. The report presents data on the scope of smoking in Israel, alongside prevention, enforcement, public awareness, and cessation efforts led by the ministry to reduce smoking-related harm.
According to the data, 23.1% of Israel’s adult population smokes. The report also shows that in 2022, approximately 12,386 deaths in Israel could be attributed to smoking, including 894 deaths caused by secondhand smoke exposure.
The report further found that 28.9% of the Jewish population and 48.5% of the Arab population are exposed to involuntary smoking. In addition, the smoking rate among adult Arab men stands at 46.2% - twice the rate among the general population.
Among teenagers, there has been an increase in the use of electronic cigarettes. About 20% of students in Israel reported that they had tried an e-cigarette, compared with about 19% who had tried regular cigarettes. For the first time, the percentage of those experimenting with e-cigarettes is higher.
The report also found that approximately 17% of students said they had smoked an e-cigarette at least once during the previous month. It also points to an increase in e-cigarette experimentation rates between 2023 and 2025 among Jewish and Arab students, as well as among Arab female students.
As part of measures to combat smoking, the Ministry of Health announced that beginning in August 2026, graphic warning labels will become mandatory on smoking products. Under the regulations, the warnings will appear alongside written warnings and will cover 75% of the packaging area of all smoking products.
Health Minister Haim Katz said: “Smoking continues to be one of the significant risk factors for public health, and accordingly, the ministry is working to reduce the scope of the phenomenon. The data in the report obligates us to continue acting with determination to prevent the exposure of children and teenagers to smoking products, while strengthening prevention, enforcement, and public awareness measures."
Director-General of the Ministry of Health Moshe Bar Siman-Tov said: “The data in the report demonstrates that smoking continues to be one of the major causes of illness and death in Israel, especially among children and teenagers. While the use of e-cigarettes among young people is rising at a worrying rate and the age of exposure to smoking and nicotine products continues to decline, significant legislative measures initiated by the Ministry of Health to protect the public are still not being advanced in the Finance Committee."