Israel says Gaza war expected to incur additional $14B, almost tripling budget deficit

JERUSALEM

Israel's Finance Ministry has said the war on the Gaza Strip will cost the country an additional $14 billion in the coming year, nearly tripling the budget deficit.

The ministry announcement on Monday was presented in a briefing to the Knesset or parliament by Itay Temkin, the ministry’s deputy budget commissioner.

The additional cost of the war during the next year will lead to an almost threefold increase in Israel's budget deficit, Temkin added, projecting the war to last through February.

The additional cost, totaling 50 billion shekels ($14 billion), is broken down into 30 billion shekels ($8.3 billion) for security and another 20 billion shekels ($5.6 billion) for civilian and other expenditures.

The ministry on Dec. 4 revised its estimates for the cost of the war on the Gaza Strip to 191 billion shekels ($51 billion dollars) for the ongoing year.

The ministry's previous estimates had indicated 163 billion shekels ($44 billion). These estimates were preceded by an additional $8 billion.

In response to Hamas' Oct. 7 cross-border offensive, Israel launched air and ground attacks on the coastal territory and has since killed some 21,000 people, most of them women and children.

The onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave's infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicines.

Tel Aviv has vowed to destroy Hamas and ensure the release of all hostages taken during the October attack. Some of them were returned after a temporary truce in November in exchange for some Palestinian prisoners.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio