51
Israeli radio station "Reshet Bet" reported on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering the option of shutting down some small government ministries in an effort to control spending.
The radio station mentioned that the discussion is currently centered on the possibility of keeping ministers in office even after their ministries have been shut down to avoid a potential coalition crisis. This would leave the ministers without portfolio.
A government session is scheduled to be held next Thursday to discuss the general budget, and until then, Netanyahu's associates are trying to draft a decision regarding the ministers of the potential ministries to be eliminated.
The radio added, "The budget, in its current form, could lead to the dismantling of the emergency government."
Days before, Israeli Channel 12 reported Netanyahu was contemplating cutting the budgets of government offices and reallocating their funds to cover the costs of the war Israel is waging on the Gaza Strip.
The finance ministry had earlier recommended the closure of 10 ministries, but Netanyahu said he would present alternative proposals that would be economically less symbolic.
## Economic Losses
In the wake of these events, the central bank governor Amir Yaron urged the prime minister at a press conference early in the year to quickly limit public spending before the market reacted poorly if the government failed to do so.
Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich indicated that the cabinet is set to approve the war budget for 2024 next Thursday, which comes after the ministers agreed to a financial support of 9 billion shekels ($2.5 billion) for reserve soldiers.
Last week, the Ministry of Finance said the war is likely to cost at least an additional 50 billion shekels ($14 billion) in 2024.
The ministry in a report submitted to the Knesset (parliament) stated that if the war continued until February 2024, it would triple the budget deficit for the year to about 6% of gross domestic product.
Before any amendments, Israel's budget for the current year, preliminarily approved in May 2023, is about 514 billion shekels ($140 billion).
On December 4, 2023, the Ministry of Finance raised its estimates for the cost of the war on the Gaza Strip to 191 billion shekels ($51 billion) for the past year, with operations continuing by air, land, and sea.
Previous estimates by the ministry were at 163 billion shekels ($44 billion), preceded by an estimate of $8 billion USD.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli military has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which, as of Sunday, has left 22,835 martyrs and 58,416 injured, most of whom are children and women. The war has caused immense destruction to infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
