Israel's Finance Ministry has announced that the war in the Gaza Strip will cost the country an additional $14 billion next year, nearly tripling the budget deficit.
The ministry's Monday announcement was presented at a briefing in the Knesset, or parliament, by Itai Temkin, the ministry's deputy budget minister.
Additional war spending next year will almost triple Israel's budget deficit, Temkin added, predicting the war will last until February 2024.
The additional spending of 50 billion shekels ($14 billion) is split between 30 billion shekels ($8.3 billion) for security and another 20 billion shekels ($5.6 billion) for civil and other expenses.
On December 4, the ministry revised its estimate of the cost of the war in the Gaza Strip to 191 billion shekels ($51 billion) for the current year.
The ministry's previous estimates indicated 163 billion shekels ($44 billion). These estimates were preceded by an additional 8 billion dollars./BGNES
