Sixteen percent of Israelis go hungry

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics has published its annual poverty report Tuesday, and revealed the grim reality many Israelis find themselves in.

According to the report, one out of six Israelis above the age of 20 has given up on food at least once because of economic troubles over the past year.

That is a massive 16 percent of Israelis, or 822,200 people, a five percent increase since three years ago.

Eleven percent were forced to go without a hot meal at least once every two days, the report said.

Initial results paint a gloomy picture of poverty coupled with rising cost of living and racial fault lines.

According to the report some 38 percent of those living in a household in which the average income per resident was NIS 2,000 were forced to pass on food.

The report said 37 percent of Arabs were forced gave up on food as opposed to only 13 percent of Jews.