The civil calendar itself does not move in Israel — only the clock. A short explainer of when the clocks change each year, and why that date is not the same one every year.
The clocks go forward this year on 27/3/26 and back on 25/10/26. Both switches happen at 02:00, while most people are asleep: forward in spring, back in autumn.
Phones and computers update themselves. The wristwatch, the oven and the car dashboard are waiting for you in the morning, and that is usually where people notice the hour has moved at all.
The dates used to be set almost year by year, and they were a running public argument. They now follow a fixed rule in the Time Determination Law: daylight saving begins on the Friday before the last Sunday in March, and ends on the last Sunday in October.
The rule is what stays put; the date is what moves, simply because "the last Sunday in October" lands on a different number every year. Last year's date is no help — you need to see where the rule falls this year.
Starting on a Friday is deliberate: the change lands inside the weekend and is absorbed over two free days, rather than in the middle of a working one.
This is the question everyone actually asks, and it is easy to get backwards. Going in, the clock jumps forward: 02:00 becomes 03:00, the night is an hour shorter, and that hour is lost. Coming out, the clock goes back: 02:00 becomes 01:00, the night is an hour longer, and that hour is gained.
Everything else follows from that direction: in summer the light runs on into the evening, in winter it gets dark early. If you have a flight, a shift or a drive in the small hours of that particular night, check which clock the time was written in.
When do the clocks change this year? Forward on 27/3/26, back on 25/10/26. Both at 02:00.
What exactly happens at 02:00? In spring the clock jumps to 03:00 and an hour is lost; in autumn it drops back to 01:00 and an hour is gained.
How long does daylight saving last in Israel? About seven months, from late March to the end of October.
Why isn't the date the same every year? Because the law fixes a rule rather than a date. The rule hangs on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October, and those land on a different date each year.
Does it move Shabbat and festival times? The times themselves follow sunset, but the hour shown on the clock jumps by one. On the night of the change, any time written down in advance is worth checking against the clock it was written in.