Israel’s War on Gaza Cost it $42 Billion

The cost of the war for the Israeli occupation, until mid-January 2025, was 150 billion shekels (about $ 42 billion). That is an average of 300 million shekels (about $84 million) per day, according to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth.

The newspaper reported there are large gaps between the cost of fighting in Lebanon, the cost of the Gaza Strip, and the “days of intense fighting” (i.e. attempts to confront Iranian missiles).

According to it, the heaviest cost in security expenditures is “funding the reserve army,” which amounts to 45 billion shekels (more than $12 billion).

A high-ranking source in the Israeli Ministry of Finance previously stated the huge new budgets allocated for 2025 to rebuild the northern and southern settlements are “frozen.”

The source told Yedioth Ahronoth that “the use of these budgets will not be possible until the final approval of the government budget.”

The source added the failure to approve the government budget for 2025 “is already causing significant damage to the economy, while the concern in the Finance Ministry now is that Israel will be run for an entire quarter on an interim budget, with the budget for each of the months of January, February, and March equal to 1/12 of the original government budget for 2024.”

However, “the Finance Ministry’s accountant general decided to allocate a smaller budget, for fear that there would be a need to finance additional months with an interim budget, and to create a reserve aimed at preventing disruption to the budgets of vital services for Israelis.”

In the same context, a senior government economic source also expressed to Yedioth Ahronoth “real concern about the possibility that the government budget will not be approved by the deadline set by law, March 31.”

“If that happens, it will be a disaster,” the source said, adding that “the government’s failure to run the full budget required during the war, with a huge deficit and special security tasks that cannot be implemented, will cause enormous damage to the economy and security,” as stated in Al Mayadeen.

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Hamas Hands Over 3 Israeli Prisoners Amidst Flurry of People

The Qassam Brigades handed over to the Red Cross, Thursday, the captive soldier Agam Berger, from the rubble of Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, as part of the third batch of prisoner exchange according to the ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile, the Al-Quds Brigades handed over the two prisoners it is holding, Arbel Yehud and Gadi Moses, to the Red Cross with their handover from in front of destroyed house of the late Yahya Sinwar’s in Khan Yunis.

The Qassam Brigades released the captive soldier Berger from Al-Razan Square in Jabalia camp, which witnessed major Israeli bombing and destruction as part of the bloody military operation launched by the occupation army, during which a large number of Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded.

The Israeli army announced it received soldier Agam Berger, saying she had arrived at the initial reception point in the so-called Gaza envelope and met with her family members.

The Al-Quds Brigades fighters were deployed in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, where the ceremony for the release of Yehud and Moses took place, while the Israeli occupation army radio said the Jihad movement was trying to “exploit the release of the two prisoners to show its strength in Khan Yunis.”

Hamas confirmed that “the large gathering of the masses of our Palestinian people in the two prisoner handover operations in the city of Khan Yunis and the Jabalia camp, amidst the rubble left by the Zionist fascism in the two areas, is a message of determination, strength and defiance that it raises in the face of this barbaric occupier, meaning that our people will remain on their land, and are determined to achieve their project of liberation, return and self-determination.”

The movement said in a press statement received by Quds Press, Thursday: “The Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian resistance prove once again their high ability to control the scene through organized handover operations that have dazzled the world, and after humiliating the criminal enemy army in the sands of Gaza.”

It pointed out “what happened today confirms the unity of the Qassam Brigades, the Al-Quds Brigades and the resistance forces in the field and in managing the exchange operation that took place in front of the house of the martyr leader Abu Ibrahim.”

It stressed “the diversity of the implementation of the release operations of Israeli prisoners from different areas of the Strip, in the steadfast Jabalia, in Khan Yunis and in front of the house of the martyr leader Yahya Sinwar, is a message to the world that our people will remain on their land, will continue the resistance, and are determined to liberate and return.”

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