The cost of expanding the war to the Lebanese front, in addition to the ongoing ground offensive in Gaza, has reached approximately 25 billion shekels over the past 50 days since the beginning of September, according to a report on Sunday. These substantial expenses will require breaking and increasing Israel's state budget immediately after the holidays.
A senior IDF official confirmed that just the ammunition used in the 10-second operation to eliminate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, during a bunker bombing in Beirut’s Dahiya district, cost 25 million shekels. The operation to kill his successor, Hashem Safieddine, in a similarly extensive bombing, cost another 20 million shekels.
Costs have surged, particularly due to the mobilization of tens of thousands of reservists in recent weeks and the deployment of several divisions into Lebanon for the first time since the war began in October of last year.
The heavy expenses have been compounded by the extensive use of costly ammunition and the need to fire hundreds of expensive interceptors in response to a significant increase in missile and drone attacks, mainly from Lebanon but also from Iran, Iraq, and Yemen.
The official noted that until recently, the IDF's daily combat expenses reached around 400 million shekels. However, since the expansion of operations in Lebanon, costs have risen and now exceed 500 million shekels per day, with potential for further increases in the near future.
At the same time, combat expenses in Gaza have also surged due to the deployment of new forces and the expansion of combat zones over the past two weeks, which included the call-up of additional reserve units.
A senior official from the Finance Ministry stated that, given the lack of funds in the current budget and the delay in transferring $18 billion in U.S. aid to Israel, which has been postponed to the next fiscal year, the government is expected to breach the 2024 budget for the third time, immediately following the holidays.
An economic expert warned that Israel's economy may struggle to sustain the prolonged war on both the northern and southern fronts at this scale. The official added that the significant expansion of operations in Lebanon, the large-scale reserve mobilization, and the recent intensification of fighting in the south will require budgetary measures that were not anticipated in recent months.
The "Nagle Committee," which is tasked with reviewing the defense budget for the coming years, recently published an interim report. However, it did not address the size of the budget increase that will be required starting in 2025 and continuing through at least 2030.
Israel's security establishment is requesting an additional 220 billion shekels over the coming years, but this has been firmly rejected by the Finance Ministry, which argues that the IDF must improve efficiency while also scaling up, including through larger reserve forces, extended compulsory service, and an increase in the number of permanent military personnel.
Reportedly, the gap between the security establishment and the Finance Ministry is at least 20 billion shekels per year for the coming years. It appears that once the Nagle Committee’s final recommendations are released, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to resolve the differences between the demands and the Finance Ministry's willingness to meet some of them.
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