Israel Cabinet approves $162-billion wartime budget for 2025

Former prime minister and key opposition leader Yair Lapid criticised the budget, saying it would 'increase the expenditure of every family in Israel by more than $5,300 per year'

Read more...
Israeli soldiers hold weapons amid the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters file

By AFP

Published: Fri 1 Nov 2024, 6:40 PM

Last updated: Fri 1 Nov 2024, 6:52 PM

Israel's Cabinet on Friday approved a 2025 national budget, a wartime financial package that far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said supported the country's ongoing wars and encouraged economic growth.

For more than a year, Israel has been locked in a war with Hamas in Gaza, and since September, it has been fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"The main objective of the 2025 budget is to maintain the security of the state and achieve victory on all fronts, while safeguarding the resilience of the Israeli economy," Smotrich said.

Advertising
Advertising

The budget, totalling about 607.4 billion shekels ($162 billion), includes a nine-billion-shekel package to support reserve soldiers.

It will now move to the Knesset, or parliament, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition holds a majority, making approval likely.

Netanyahu welcomed the cabinet's approval of the budget, saying Smotrich had put together "an important, difficult but necessary budget in a year of war".

Additional allocations would be made for the defence ministry, as the military fights the two wars, as well as Iran and the groups it backs.

"This budget will help and support the needs of the war so that it will lead to a victory that will allow the strong Israeli economy to grow and prosper for many years," Smotrich said.

The budget projects a fiscal deficit of about 4.3 percent.

But former prime minister and key opposition leader Yair Lapid criticised the budget, saying it would "increase the expenditure of every family in Israel by 20,000 shekels (more than $5,300) per year".

ALSO READ:

AFP

Published: Fri 1 Nov 2024, 6:40 PM

Last updated: Fri 1 Nov 2024, 6:52 PM

Recommended for you