Israel’s government has approved a state budget of 582 billion shekels ($155 billion) as Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip continues.
“We reached an agreement and now we will adopt a very important budget. This is a war budget, which takes into account the needs of our reservists, their families, the self-employed and government ministries, as well as the needs of the public,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the Israeli public service KAN, the budget for 2024 includes 55 billion shekels ($14.8 billion) for defense and nine billion shekels ($2.4 billion) for military reservist recruitment programs.
“The amended budget includes an increase in spending of 70 billion shekels ($19 billion) compared to the original spending plan approved in May 2023,” the Ministry of Finance said.
In the discussions on the budget, there were conflicting opinions among the ministers due to opposition to the cuts proposed by the Ministry of Finance, and some ministers threatened not to support the plan.
Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year after a cross-border attack by Hamas that official Tel Aviv claimed killed around 1,200 people.
At least 24,100 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 60,834 injured, Palestinian authorities said.
According to United Nations estimates, 85 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip has been internally displaced due to acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 percent of the Palestinian enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.
