Report: The Cost of Recruiting Reserve Forces in Israel Could Reach 3 Billion Shekels Monthly

SadaNews - The Israeli occupation army divides the area it occupies in southern Lebanon into three sections. The first section is referred to as the "Red Line," which includes the villages closest to the border, most of the buildings in this area are destroyed, and Israeli forces are stationed in permanent positions.

The occupation refers to the second area as the "Yellow Line" or anti-tank line, which includes Lebanese villages located six to ten kilometers from the border, and within it lies the city of Bint Jbeil, which serves as a resistance stronghold where fighters from Hezbollah engage in battles with the occupation.

The third line is at the Litani River, and the occupation seeks to control it to prevent Hezbollah from targeting its forces, according to the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth" today, Sunday.

This situation leads to a doubling of the economic cost that was not considered when the state budget and security budget were approved, which had been inflated at the time. After the war against Lebanon began in early March of this year, the occupation deployed five military divisions in southern Lebanon, including reserve forces.

The economic newspaper "The Marker" reported that the monthly cost for ten thousand reserve soldiers is 400 million shekels (about 133 million dollars). The newspaper quoted an Israeli security official as saying that the army will need 80,000 reserves permanently as long as it occupies southern Lebanon, which means that the cost of recruiting them alone rises to 3.2 billion shekels per month (about 1.06 billion dollars per month), to continue the occupation in southern Lebanon, "and increase missions in the West Bank, part of which is related to confronting the rise of Jewish terrorism and establishing settlement outposts in the West Bank."

The security official noted that this cost will rise as long as the occupation of southern Lebanon continues, due to the cost of building and fortifying military positions for the occupation forces "and complicated logistical preparations."

The Ministry of the Occupation Army is demanding to increase the security budget by 20 billion shekels (about 6.5 billion dollars), after it was approved to be 144 billion shekels (about 48 billion dollars) in the state budget for the current year, and 7 billion shekels (about 2.3 billion dollars) from the security budget is designated for rehabilitating injured soldiers due to the rising number since October 7, 2023.