Israel's Gaza War Has Cost $140 Billion and Counting, Israeli Financial Paper Reports

Israel's war on Gaza has cost roughly 420 billion shekels, about $140 billion, and could soon reach half a trillion shekels, according to an investigation published by the Israeli financial daily TheMarker.

The figure, reported by Middle East Eye in its Israeli press review, comes from inside Israel's own financial press rather than from Palestinian sources or international bodies, making it harder for Israeli officials to dismiss as propaganda.

The Defence Ministry's budget has more than doubled in four years, from 84 billion shekels in 2022 to over 175 billion shekels in 2026, the third straight year it has topped that threshold. TheMarker's sources, including a former army chief and an unnamed economic expert, suggested the spending spike traces back to the military and intelligence failures that allowed the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack to happen in the first place.

Wasteful war, officials admit

According to the investigation, Israel mobilised around 220,000 reservists and burned through bombs and tank shells at an unprecedented rate in the early weeks of the war, at one point running short on ammunition. A former army officer told TheMarker that "too much fire was used" in that initial period.

Officials cited in the report conceded that similar or better military results could plausibly have been achieved in a shorter, less costly campaign. That admission, buried in a domestic financial investigation, cuts against the Israeli government's public framing of the war as a necessary and proportionate response.

UNRWA school seized in Shuafat

Separately, Haaretz reported that the Jerusalem municipality has taken over a school and clinic run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in the Shuafat refugee camp. Roland Friedrich, UNRWA's director for the occupied West Bank, said municipality officials changed the locks and carried out repairs at the agency's largest complex in the camp without authorisation.

Friedrich said the properties belong to the UN and are protected under international law, which bars unauthorised entry. He said UNRWA has invested heavily in the buildings over the years and raised concern about the latest breach.

Both facilities were shut by the Israeli government over the past year. The municipality had promised to replace UNRWA's services for camp residents but, according to Haaretz, has not yet opened a new school for the camp's children. The municipality disputes Friedrich's account, claiming UNRWA built on private land without paying for it, and says it plans to build a school of its own.

Billboards target Mamdani and Erdogan

Netanyahu's Likud party also launched a Tel Aviv billboard campaign this week depicting foreign figures it casts as Israel's adversaries, including Iran's supreme leader, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hezbollah's Naim Qassem, and newly elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The billboard read, in Hebrew, "They want Netanyahu to lose. Don't let them win."

Netanyahu posted a follow-up video showing Erdogan comparing him to Hitler and Mamdani calling him a war criminal, repeating the same slogan.