Israel’s new budget provides army resources to continue fighting: Smotrich
The far-right finance minister has welcomed the adoption of the country’s 2025 budget at the Knesset. “[It] meets all the needs of the war on the front and in the rear until victory and pushes the economy and national resilience forward,” he wrote on X.
The budget provides the Israeli army and the defence establishment with “the resources required to continue fighting”, he added. The Knesset narrowly approved the budget on Monday in its first reading with 59 votes in favour and 57 against it, according to the Israeli media.
How Israel’s budget vote revealed divisions in the governing coalition
As we reported earlier, the Knesset approved Israel’s budget bill that supports the country’s war efforts and was celebrated by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, another far-right senior figure in Netanyahu’s coalition government, was absent during the vote in protest. Ben-Gvir and his ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party opposed the bill due to budget cuts affecting his ministry, along with his demand to dismiss the attorney general.
Benny Gantz, who quit the government in June, said in a post on X that Ben-Gvir’s absence from the session and his refusal to approve the budget is due to personal goals and calculations with members of the Israeli government.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said coalition members are “destroying everything, and this country does not belong to them”.
Gideon Saar, who entered the governing coalition in late September after accepting a post as foreign minister, was in favour of the budget.
At least 13,500 Israeli soldiers wounded during the war: Ministry
The Department of Rehabilitation at the Israeli Ministry of Defence says more than 13,500 officers and soldiers were injured during the war, with about 1,500 of them injured twice.
Among the wounded soldiers are 287 with head injuries, 87 of which are serious, and 10 are in wheelchairs, the government department said, according to Hebrew media.
It added that 37 percent of the wounded soldiers suffer from limb injuries, most of them bone injuries.
About 5,200 suffer from mental health reactions, including 3,350 soldiers dealing with anxiety, depression and adjustment difficulties, and 1,300 affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.
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