The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Tuesday: "The war in Gaza has been renewed for more than a month after the ceasefire, and the intention now is to expand the war through a renewed large-scale ground maneuver, which will cost a lot of money."
She explained that "the Israeli army is already talking about the need for a significant budget increase of about 10 billion shekels."
She added, "In recent days, the security establishment has been calculating the additional cost of prolonging and expanding the war, to the point of occupying approximately 40% of the Gaza Strip in the coming weeks, in order to bolster the security of the towns (settlements) surrounding Gaza and prevent the renewed and continued firing of rockets at Israel."
She noted that this need for a budget increase "has already been expressed in recent days by senior government officials, including Defense Minister Israel Katz."
The newspaper said, "Senior Finance Ministry officials were astonished by the amount the Israeli military will request in addition to the budget, which amounts to approximately 10 billion shekels."
A senior Finance Ministry official, who was not named, was quoted as saying, "It is unreasonable to allocate another 10 billion shekels to the bloated defense budget," noting that "it is not possible to raise taxes on citizens to cover these costs."
"At present, there is little doubt that any additional tax increases will be categorically rejected, and the preferred solution in the event of an inevitable additional increase in the defense budget would be another significant cut in the budgets of government ministries and an increase in the general state budget deficit by a tenth or two tenths," she said.
At the beginning of this year, the Israeli economic newspaper Calcalist reported that the cost of the war on the Gaza Strip would reach approximately 250 billion shekels ($67.57 billion) by the end of 2024.
The newspaper reported that the Bank of Israel estimates that the cost of the war on the Gaza Strip has so far reached approximately 250 billion shekels. The newspaper explained that this figure includes "direct security costs, significant civilian expenditures, and lost revenue, but not all of it."