Israel's cabinet approves the country's 2024 budget and adds $15 billion to supplement its war in Gaza against the Hamas militant group.
The decision comes after overcoming strong opposition from within the government, marking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's successful push for an amended 2024 state budget. It is worth roughly $155 billion and was paired with an overall spending increase of less than $20 billion.
The additional funds include money meant for defense and compensation for those who have been impacted by the war in Gaza. There were also higher allocations for healthcare, police, welfare, and education.
In a statement, Netanyahu said that they have reached an agreement and will pass a very important budget. The prime minister called it the war budget, which would also take care of the needs of Israel's reservists, their families, the self-employed, and government ministries.
The prime minister also noted that they are increasing the health budget and adding another billion shekels to address mental health, which he called an important need. Netanyahu said that they also discussed increasing the education budget, the welfare budget, the internal security budget, and the defense budget, as per the Times of Israel.
The newest measure, which contains a deficit target of 6.6% of the country's GDP, passed a few hours after an all-night meeting regarding the matter ended inconclusively. This was due to ministerial opposition to across-the-board budget cuts. The bill will now go to the Knesset, where it must pass three readings in the plenum before it can become law.
United Torah Judaism Chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf welcomed the budget proposal, noting that it "maintained the budgets of the Ministry of Construction and Housing." However, there were many others who opposed the planned cuts.
During the meeting where officials discussed the budget, tensions over the planned cuts rose to the point that Education Minister Yoav Kisch stormed out of the room in a fit of rage. He left the room over the proposed reduction of his budget by hundreds of millions of shekels.
Gaza War Against Hamas
Since then, the prime minister and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich appear to have been working to bring around opponents of the wartime budget. These include National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who said that he had reached an agreement to secure more than $500 billion in additional funding for his ministry.
The situation comes as Israel's war against Hamas passed its 100th day on Sunday and has been taking its toll on the Middle Eastern country's defense capabilities. Smotrich said after the vote for the budget that they have changed priorities, according to Reuters.
Last year, Israel approved a two-year budget for 2023 and 2024, but the conflict in Gaza has shaken up the nation's government finances. This has led officials to require budget changes and additional spending.
Amid its war against Hamas, Israel has mounted a relentless military offensive since the terrorist group's initial attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Local health authorities in Gaza said that since then, 24,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed while 60,000 others were injured across the region amid Jerusalem's continued assaults, said the Middle Easter Monitor.
