The 25-year-old Haaland extended his leading tally in European qualifying to a remarkable 12 goals in six games, and his overall Norway total to 51 in 46 matches.
France star Kylian Mbappe and Poland's Robert Lewandowski took 90 games to hit the half-century, while record eight-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi took 107 for Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo needed 114 games with Portugal.
Also in Group I action on Saturday, second-placed Italy earned a fourth-straight win of the campaign with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Estonia in Tallinn.
European champions Spain maintained their perfect start to qualifying with a 2-0 win over Georgia in Elche.
Yeremy Pino fired the hosts in front after 24 minutes and although Ferran Torres had his penalty saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili before the break, Mikel Oyarzabal crashed in a superb free kick to secure a third-straight Group E win.
Real Madrid's Arda Guler was among the scorers as Turkey returned to winning ways with a 6-1 thrashing over Bulgaria and kept the pressure on Spain.
In Lisbon, Ruben Neves got Portugal out of jail with an added-time winner against Ireland after Ronaldo had seen his penalty saved by Caoimhin Kelleher.
Also in Group F, Hungary boosted their hopes of qualifying by scoring their first win with a 2-0 victory over Armenia.
In Oslo, Haaland scored with an angled shot in the 27th minute, a powerful downward header in the 63rd and a back-post header in the 72nd.
A few minutes into the game, however, he was off target.
Haaland's first penalty was saved by Daniel Peretz, but the Polish referee ordered the kick to be retaken because the goalkeeper had moved off his line too soon.
He tried the other way second time but Peretz guessed correctly again and palmed his effort away as Haaland looked on disbelievingly.
Aside from the hat-trick, Haaland was also involved in Norway's third goal when his looming presence led to Israel's second own goal of the game.
Elsewhere in Group K, Andorra picked up their first point with a 2-2 draw against Latvia and Albania ran out 1-0 winners over Serbia.
With PA.
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