The Israeli Government Approves Increased Security Budget and Reductions in Other Ministries' Budgets

SadaNews - This evening, Tuesday, the Israeli government approved an increase in the security budget and reductions in the budgets of other ministries.

The government agreed to an increase of 30.8 billion shekels in the state budget allocated for security, due to the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip and the repercussions of the aggression against Iran in June.

As a result, the budget deficit will rise from 4.9% to 5.2%.

The government also approved a series of "broad" cuts in various areas, the most significant of which pertained to coalition agreements and government ministries' budgets.

More than half a billion shekels will be deducted from the budgets of coalition agreements, which amounts to an overall reduction of 11%, from about 5 billion shekels to 4.5 billion shekels.

Opposing the decision were National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Yoav Kish, Chaim Katz, Vaserlaov, and Amichai Eliyahu.

Prior to the government meeting to approve the violation of the state budget, documents received by Israeli ministers showed that the goal is to increase the security budget amid the ongoing war on Gaza, and to implement a 3.5% cut across all government spending items starting from the year 2026, under the pretext of reducing the financial deficit in the budget.

The "Marker" newspaper reported that this is the fifth time the government has approved a budget violation since the beginning of the war on Gaza. The government will approve an increase in the state budget of 30.8 billion shekels, the majority of which is designated for the security budget.

It is noted that the state budget for this year set a financial deficit ceiling of 4.2%, but it later increased to 4.2%, and based on the current proposal to violate the budget, the budget deficit will reach 5.2%.

According to the proposal, the security budget will increase by 28.9 billion shekels, bringing its total to more than 140 billion shekels, approaching last year's security budget of 160 billion shekels.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims in the current proposal that the security budget includes 1.6 billion shekels to fund humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, although Smotrich himself recently denied this.

1.7 billion shekels will be earmarked for increased spending on interest on government loans, as a result of the rising deficit. This amount will be added to the 56.2 billion shekels that this year's budget allocated to pay interest on loans primarily obtained by the government from external sources.

This comes despite an increase in state treasury income from taxes by more than 20 billion shekels this year. The fiscal deficit reached 6.9% last year and 4.2% in 2023.