Israeli Finance Ministry: War with Hamas will cost at least $14 billion in 2024

Shafaq News/ The Israeli Ministry of Finance stated on Monday that the war with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is likely to cost Israel at least 50 billion shekels (14 billion dollars) in 2024. This is expected to result in an almost threefold increase in its budget deficit, with the anticipation of continued fighting until February.

Itai Tiamkin, the deputy budget commissioner at the Ministry of Finance, informed members of the Knesset that the war is expected to last for at least two months in 2024. This will lead to an additional 30 billion shekels for security and another 20 billion for civil and other expenses.

Tiamkin further stated to the Knesset Finance Committee that this would raise the total defense expenditure to over 48 billion shekels, exceeding the initial allocation.

He mentioned that the total expenditures in the 2024 budget would increase to 562.1 billion shekels from the initially planned 513.7 billion, resulting in a budget deficit of 5.9 percent of the gross domestic product.

With the deficit expected to widen from 75 billion to 114 billion shekels next year, Tiamkin stated that the gap would require cuts in other expenses or an increase in revenues.

Earlier this month, the Knesset approved a particular budget for the ongoing year, amounting to around 30 billion shekels, to help finance combat operations and compensate those affected by the attacks launched by Hamas militants across the border on October 7, which ignited the flames of war.