The Israeli Ministry of Finance has started preliminary discussions in preparation for an increase in the general budget for the coming year 2024, an increase of 7 billion

dollars over the budget for the current year 2023, for the first time in the history of Israel, due to the war on Gaza.

Edited by| Paul Mitchel

Economic  section -  CJ journalist

Tel Aviv - October,25,2023

According to estimates so far, the deficit in next year's budget will reach about 4 percent, that is, 20 billion dollars, according to the Hebrew newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth”.

For its part, the Israeli website “times of Israel” estimated that the war on Gaza will cost Israel at least 27 billion shekels (6.7 billion dollars), according to the forecasts of the

Israeli Bank “Hapoalim”, and stated in a report that the war is at a stage experiencing major economic challenges, in addition, the International Monetary Fund warned that

the global economy is facing a new state of uncertainty due to factors including the war between Israel and Hamas.

Israel is mobilizing its forces to invade Gaza by land, where it has called up 360 thousand soldiers from the reserves, which represents about 77 percent of the reserve forces

of 465 thousand soldiers, while the number of active Israeli forces is 173 thousand military.

According to specialized reports, the cost of the day of fighting on Gaza is about 200 million shekels (49 million dollars), including the expenses of calling up reserves,

ammunition and supplies.

According to economists, the Israeli shekel is still suffering with its significant decline against the dollar, as it fell to a level of more than 4 shekels per dollar, which is down by

about 12.75 percent year-on-year.

The decline of the shekel comes despite the start of the” Bank of Israel " pumping up to 45 billion dollars in the local market, to maintain its stability, and to meet any

increasing demand for the dollar, including the sale of 30 billion dollars, and the allocation of an additional 15 billion through exchange instruments in order to reduce

currency fluctuations.