Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported – today, Sunday – that the Israeli occupation army failed to achieve the goals of the war on the Gaza Strip despite entering its fourth month, amid a record economic cost of nearly 60 billion dollars.
This came in an extensive report by the newspaper under the title, “The most costly war and Israel’s goals have not yet been achieved…a picture of the situation after 3 months.”
The report said that according to updated figures, the cost of the war has already risen to about 217 billion shekels ($59.35 billion), and the cost includes both the army’s combat budget and extensive aid to the economy in all areas.
The report indicated that the cost of the Israeli army’s combat day last October, including the recruitment of 360,000 reserve soldiers at the beginning of the war, amounted to one billion shekels ($270.35 million).
He added that due to the mass demobilization of tens of thousands of soldiers in recent days, the cost currently amounts to 600 million shekels ($164.11 million) per day.
Israel continued to pay an amount of 300 shekels ($82) daily until the end of 2024 for each reservist soldier recruited, noting that these payments alone have so far reached about 9 billion shekels ($2.46 billion).
Civil damages
At the civil level, compensation already amounts to tens of billions of shekels, and the state is expected to pay companies affected by the activity cycles in the first three months of this year about 10 billion shekels ($2.74 billion).
According to estimates, the value of the damage to property in the border settlements with Lebanon amounts to between 5 and 7 billion shekels ($1.37-1.91 billion), in addition to between 15 and 20 billion shekels ($4.10 and 5.47 billion), the initial value of the damage to property in Gaza envelope area.
Damage to Israel’s image
The report pointed out that global support for Israel diminishes every day the war continues, and said that extremist left-wing organizations, along with supporters of the Palestinian cause, who led the speech of support on social media networks, caused the outbreak of hatred towards Israel and Jews around the world.
He said that all of this is being exploited by China and Russia, which are working to weaken the West, and that the Russians in general are celebrating, because for weeks there has been no talk of invading Ukraine and the new problem is the lawsuit that South Africa submitted to the court in The Hague.
In early January, South Africa filed a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice, accusing Tel Aviv of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Collapse of personal security
The report also believes that the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7 affected the personal security of the residents of Israel.
This can be seen in the countless applications for weapons licenses, also in cities in the center of the country, as a lesson from what happened in the kibbutzim on the Gaza Strip, according to the report.
Immediately after the Hamas attack, extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir decided to facilitate obtaining weapons licenses.