Police enforcement of Israel’s law prohibiting the purchase of prostitution services has been concentrated in a handful of stations, while recognized victims of trafficking for prostitution have faced residence-visa decisions that at times departed from the Population and Immigration Authority’s procedures, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman found.
The audit, conducted from December 2024 through July 2025, examined enforcement of the law, investigations into trafficking for prostitution, protection of victims, and decisions on residence visas.
“The constitutional duty to protect human dignity, liberty and physical integrity lies at the heart of the state’s obligations,” Englman said on Tuesday. “The audit found deep gaps in implementing the law prohibiting the purchase of prostitution services, and a significant concern of under-enforcement of offenses related to prostitution and, in particular, trafficking in women for prostitution purposes.”
Police issued 3,004 fines to purchasers of prostitution services in 2022, but that number fell to 902 in 2023 and 378 in 2024. Although the number rose to 1,061 in 2025, it remained about 65% below the 2022 figure.
The enforcement gap was also geographic. About 99% of fines issued between 2021 and 2025 came from the Tel Aviv, Central, and Coastal districts, almost exclusively through the Zevulun, Rishon Lezion, and Sharett police stations.
In 2024, the Southern, Northern, and Jerusalem districts issued no fines, despite police information on suspected prostitution venues within their areas, the report said.
Police had mapped more than 1,300 addresses nationwide suspected of being prostitution venues in 2024, hundreds of them assessed as medium- or high-reliability leads. About 40% were in the Tel Aviv District. Yet, the comptroller found, much of that information was not translated into enforcement.
Police closed 13 brothels in 2024 and 29 in 2025, for a total of 60 between 2022 and 2025. Since a 2017 law allowing courts to order the closure of websites used for certain offenses took effect, only 95 such orders have been issued in cases involving the solicitation, advertising, or marketing of prostitution.
The report also criticized the low use of a rehabilitative-educational alternative to fines. Of 5,345 fines issued between 2022 and 2025, only 111 people completed the program, a rate of two-percent. The program is intended to increase awareness of the harm caused by prostitution and reduce repeat offending.
Police translated only 44% of their already limited intelligence on trafficking in persons into operational activity in 2024, leaving 56% unused, according to the report.
Police also did not set national targets for fines under the prostitution law until 2025. In trafficking cases, the Coastal, Central, and Judea and Samaria districts did not solve a case between 2022 and 2024, despite a combined target of eight cases.
The police cell responsible for human-trafficking cases at national headquarters had only one officer at the end of the audit in July 2025. Additional positions approved that year had not yet been filled.
Tel Aviv District remained the only district with a dedicated police department handling trafficking offenses and related crimes. The police decided in September 2023 to establish similar departments in the Central and Coastal districts, but the formal establishment order was issued only in February 2025, and both departments remained incomplete as of August 2025.
The comptroller noted positively that Tel Aviv’s department opened 13 significant trafficking cases between 2022 and 2024, including complex investigations, indictments, and proceedings that ended in convictions.
Prostitution trafficking victims face obstacles remaining in Israel
The report also identified problems in the Population and Immigration Authority’s treatment of victims of trafficking for prostitution seeking permission to remain in Israel.
It found that the authority had, in some cases, conditioned a victim’s return to Israel to complete a rehabilitation year on an exceptional financial guarantee; issued limited residence visas that did not comply with its procedures for trafficking victims seeking to testify, despite police determinations that their continued presence was necessary; required a reassessment of victim status after a police investigation was closed; and sent inspectors to determine whether victims had returned to prostitution, though that fell outside the inspectors’ defined mandate.
The report said disputes over visas had emerged in recent years between the authority and the Justice Ministry’s Legal Aid Department. The department filed appeals and tort claims aimed at compelling the authority to issue visas in accordance with the law, describing the proceedings as avoidable and wasteful.
The coordinator in the Justice Ministry’s anti-trafficking coordination unit said the authority’s systematic denial of work visas to trafficking victims was unreasonable and contrary to government decisions and the authority’s own procedures.
According to the report, the coordinator warned that the policy could push victims back into prostitution, harm criminal cases in which substantial resources had been invested, and lead to a decline in Israel’s standing in the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report.
The report noted that the State Department ranking concerns trafficking in persons broadly, not only trafficking for prostitution. Israel has remained in Tier 2 since 2020, according to the comptroller, placing it at risk of a further downgrade to the lowest tier, which could carry broad sanctions.
Government plans to combat trafficking remain unfinished
The government’s five-year national plan to combat trafficking in persons is due to end in late 2026, but several tasks remain unfinished. Cooperation between the police and the Population and Immigration Authority’s Enforcement and Foreigners Administration had not been regulated through a formal procedure.
The online public hotline handled only 47 inquiries between 2022 and 2024. As of May 2026, the coordination unit had not formulated a structured annual interministerial training plan, while arrangements for financing transportation of trafficking victims to shelters remained unresolved, despite the Welfare Ministry funding the transport in practice in 2025.
Englman recommended that police strengthen consistent enforcement, make fuller use of existing intelligence and public reports, and examine privacy-protected information sharing with Health Ministry Levinsky Clinics to help identify prostitution venues.
He also called on the Population and Immigration Authority to issue residence visas to trafficking victims in accordance with its authority and procedures.
“Six years after the law prohibiting the purchase of prostitution services came into force, the enforcement measures taken are not enough,” Englman said. “Implementation of measures to combat trafficking for prostitution, protect victims and provide treatment is also deficient and incomplete.”