OmanLike a rolling snowball, the Israeli economy is receiving a series of “painful blows” as the war waged by the occupation continues. Gaza strip For more than 100 days.

According to observers and experts, the government Benjamin Netanyahu Failed to neutralize the economy Israel And spare him Losses like previous wars, especially since the region that was the cause of Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood (Gaza coverIt is responsible for supplying the Israeli economy with about 75% of the agricultural crops needed by the occupation, but the war transformed it from an agricultural area into a closed military zone.

Grim economic reality

The Jordanian economist, Dr. Amer Al-Shobaki, painted a bleak picture of the reality and future of the Israeli economy in light of the continuation of the war on the Gaza Strip. He said in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that the total direct and indirect economic losses of the occupation in its war – which it has been waging against Gaza since the seventh of last October – It reached 165 billion dollars.

Al-Shoubaki added that what is announced by Israel is a small part of the real military losses. The operational cost of this war has reached 280 million dollars per day, the equivalent of 28 billion dollars in the first 100 days of the battle, in addition to the cost of the military vehicles that the resistance announced had been destroyed. Which exceed a thousand armored vehicles and tanks, and these are military losses that the occupation has not announced yet.

Al-Shoubaki summarizes the occupation’s losses in its war on Gaza as follows:

• Emptying many sectors of Israeli workers, so that they become reserve soldiers in the Israeli army, and their number exceeds 300 thousand employees working in various vital sectors, the most important of which is the technology sector, which supplies Israel with half of its exports, and this sector has suffered losses exceeding 20 billion dollars.
• Foreign investments became idle as a result of the war on Gaza, causing huge losses, reaching $15 billion, which takes a long time to recover, in addition to stopping the tourism sector, which was damaged – according to what was announced – by 75%, and this sector was generating approximately 20%. Billion dollars to the Israeli treasury annually.
• Sheltering and compensating families displaced as a result of the war in the Gaza Strip and in the northern border areas with Lebanon, whose number is estimated at one million settlers, currently living in 280 hotels. This requires huge sums of no less than $10 billion, and compensating them for their commercial and industrial losses that they suffered as a result of the war. .

• Compensating and treating war-wounded civilians and war-wounded soldiers, in addition to compensating the families of dead soldiers, treating the wounded and disabled as a result of the war, and compensating those whose homes were damaged as a result of being hit by Palestinian resistance missiles and Hezbollah missiles, which increases additional costs to the occupation treasury. In the short and long term.
• The migration of more than 400,000 Israelis – so far – who hold dual nationalities to the European and American continents, which is reflected in a decrease in government and taxpayer revenues.
• The loss of Palestinian labor in the construction sector in the territories occupied in 1948, and the flight of Thai labor in agricultural facilities around the Gaza Strip for fear of war, which adds new burdens to the Israeli economy, as a result of the complete cessation of this vital sector.
• The continuing navigation crisis in the Red Sea, prevent Houthi group For ships coming towards Israel, or sailing through Israel Bab al-Mandab, This stopped maritime traffic in the Israeli port of Eilat by 95%. The occupation has also become dependent on ships coming from the Mediterranean, which has raised the cost of shipping and caused a sharp rise in the prices of consumer goods and vehicle prices within the occupying state.

The chief economist of the Ministry of Finance in Israel, Shmuel Abramson, expected that the economy would contract by 1.5% if the war on Gaza continued until the end of the current year, after he had expected growth of 2.7% for the year 2024 before the start of the war, according to a report carried by the Israeli economic newspaper “Globes”.

High debt

Economic expert Hossam Ayesh did not stray far from Al-Shoubaki, as he confirmed that Israel did not plan for its war on the Gaza Strip to extend for more than 100 days, because the occupation suffered huge losses on the economic level due to the war, and entered into a real dilemma as a result of the high debts it needs to spend on. Military operations, in addition to its suffering from a severe budget deficit due to the decline in revenues, which means that its credit rating declined from stable to negative, with expectations that it will face a government deficit of 5.3% during the years 2023 and 2024, given the large defense spending imposed by the war.

Ayesh told Al Jazeera Net: “The economic, military and technological damage incurred by the occupation during the past 100 days exceeded 100 billion dollars, adding that the more the war increased, the greater the percentage of loss.”

He continues that the technology sector, which represents the backbone of the Israeli economy – due to its superiority in this field – has begun to decline, noting that tax revenues related to this sector have declined by 80%.

Ayesh said, “The Israeli military reserve called up a large portion of the workers in this sector, accompanied by the state of uncertainty resulting from this war, and all of this has caused particularly heavy losses.”

Earlier, the Accountant General of the Israeli Finance Department, Yali Rotenberg, expected that the public debt ratio would increase to 62.1% of gross domestic product For the year 2023 due to the financial repercussions of this war, after expectations indicated a decline of 1% on an annual basis to 59% before the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, according to the “Globes” newspaper.

Official data also showed that the budget deficit is expected to rise from 2.25% to 6.6% of GDP during the current year.

According to these data, the financial impact of the war is estimated at about 150 billion shekels ($40.25 billion) for the period 2023-2024, assuming the war ends in the first quarter of this year.

Hide losses

The economic expert, Ayesh, pointed out that the Netanyahu government is hiding the truth about its economic losses in order not to disrupt the course of the battle in the Gaza Strip. However, the Western media – especially the American ones – recently published the truth about the losses that the occupation has incurred since more than 100 days of aggression against the Gaza Strip. .

This comes – according to Ayesh – despite the fact that Israel’s budget for the year 2023 – before the war – amounted to 130 billion dollars, which is the largest budget in its history. However, with the outbreak of the war, it was forced to approve an additional budget of 8.1 billion dollars, to meet the war’s military needs. Which will lead to an increase in the fiscal deficit to 3.7% of GDP last year, then to 5% in 2024.

He explained that although the Central Bank of Israel allocated $45 billion to protect the shekel’s exchange rate, its value deteriorated, recording the longest series of losses in 39 years, while the Central Bank’s loss amounted to $7.3 billion from its foreign currency reserves.

It is noteworthy that the Governor of the Central Bank of Israel had estimated the cost of the war on Gaza at about 210 billion shekels ($56 billion) for defense and compensation for those displaced from their homes in the south, due to Palestinian resistance operations, or the north, due to the missiles targeting them from Lebanon.