The cost of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has reached an eye watering $42 billion, averaging $83.8 million per day, Israeli media admitted on Friday.
Citing Gil Pinchas, the Economic Advisor to the Israeli army’s Chief of Staff and head of the Budget Department at the Ministry of Defense, Israeli daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, reported that as of mid-January the war had cost 150 billion shekels ($42 billion).
According to this figure the average daily cost of the war on Gaza was approximately 300 million shekels ($83.8 million).
It also noted that in just a single night of defending the skies with the help of the international coalition against the Iranian missile attack cost one billion shekels ($279 million).”
On October 1, 2024, Iran launched around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in what Tehran said was a retaliation for the recent assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon.
Yedioth Ahronoth added that “the heaviest expenditure item in the defense budget is the funding of the reserve army, which reached 45 billion shekels ($12.5 billion).”
One of the most significant negative effects of the war on Gaza is the decline in Israel’s economic growth.
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Since the beginning of the war, and particularly in the first two months, there has been a decline in consumption, production, and investment, and a complete disruption of the economy in the south and, partially, in the north of the country.
This has led to a decline in tax collection and in economic growth. In contrast, the rise in government spending because of the war is expected to mitigate this decline.
According to recent data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, there was a 1.4 percent decline in GDP in the second quarter of 2024 compared to that of 2023.
As for business GDP, there was a serious decline of 4.8 percent in the second quarter of 2024, which meant that the economy was entering a recession.
The volume of exports also declined by 8.1 percent, imports of goods and services dropped by 9.8 percent, and real estate investments slowed by 16.9 percent.
