Israeli government passes $155 billion wartime budget

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli government on Monday approved an amended state budget worth 582 billion shekels ($155 billion) as Israel continues a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip.

“We reached an agreement, and we will now pass a very important budget,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

“This is the war budget, which also takes care of the needs of our reservists, their families, the self-employed, and government ministries, and the needs of the public,” he added.

According to Israeli public broadcaster KAN, the 2024 budget includes 55 billion shekels ($14.8 billion) for the defense budget and nine billion shekels ($2.4 billion) for the army's reservists recruitment programs.

The updated budget includes a rise of 70 billion shekels ($19 billion) in spending relative to the original budget approved in May 2023, the Finance Ministry said.

The budget discussions saw differences among ministers amid opposition to cuts proposed by the Finance Ministry, with some ministers threatening not to support the budget.

The main dispute was over cuts in the budgets of various ministries after the ministry announced an across-the-board 3% cut, which at the last minute was raised to 5%.

Israel has launched a deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, killing at least 24,100 people and injuring 60,834 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.

The offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar