The occupation government estimated the cost of the ongoing war on Gaza in the first three weeks at about 30 billion shekels so far, while “each day of fighting” costs a billion shekels.

The head of the Budget Department in the Israeli Ministry of Finance, Yogav Gardos, pointed out on Wednesday the effects of the war on Israel’s budget. Whether due to increased war expenses and aid programs, or due to decreased revenues, following a slowdown in economic activity as a result of the war.

According to Gardos, the fighting expenses alone have so far reached 20 billion shekels; This means that each day of fighting costs about one billion shekels, while total spending is likely to increase as the war continues.

Gardos stated that "there are many other expenses" in addition to security expenses, noting that the cost of evacuating more than 100,000 settlers amounts to 1.7 billion shekels.

In this regard, he said that the Ministry of Finance "transferred 5 billion shekels, among other things, to equip weapons, assist local authorities, and evacuate residents."

Gardos also estimated that the damage to the GDP of the economy in Israel amounts to about 10 billion shekels during a month of fighting; “This means that growth in Israel will slow significantly in 2023,” Haaretz reported.

He said, "The costs of fighting are enormous compared to previous rounds. We need to be responsible," noting that "the matter will continue for a long time, and we do not want to take a financial hit either. If we do it correctly, this will not happen."

Gardos called for commercial activities to continue as normally as possible, and said, "The public has a role in mitigating the economic impact, and most companies can continue production and consumption."

This comes as official data reported earlier Wednesday that 37% of commercial businesses in Israel operate at a very low level, with only 20% of their employees working, in light of the war that Israel is waging against Gaza. According to the data, 24% of businesses employ more than 81% of workers.

Estimates in Israel indicate that the advance of the occupation forces into the northern Gaza Strip was faster than expected, and expectations are that the fighting will escalate further inside Gaza City and it is not expected to be easy despite the rapid ground incursion in the past four days.