The demand for an increase in the defense budget of the Israeli army has created serious disagreements within the government. According to claims, prolonged military operations and rising costs have forced the army to request additional financial resources.
Medianews.az reports that the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth" has published information.
According to the information, facing a budget shortfall, the Israeli army has demanded urgent additional funding from the government.
The army currently desires to increase the defense budget from 38.9 billion dollars to 49.5 billion dollars. Although the Defense Ministry stated that this increase is necessary, the Finance Ministry opposed the demand, considering it "excessive and unjustified."
According to the newspaper, the Israeli army admitted that it is having difficulty continuing its operations with the current financial capabilities, and because of this, some reserve soldiers have been removed from service and some military operations requiring high expenses have been canceled.
The Finance Ministry warned that increasing defense expenditures to this extent could reduce funds allocated to civil sectors and negatively affect the country's international credit rating.
Although savings measures were implemented in the army to reduce the financial burden, they have not yielded results. The Israeli army had previously aimed to reduce the number of reserve soldiers from 60,000 to 40,000, but after intensive combat operations where 120,000 reserve soldiers served simultaneously, it was only able to reduce this number to 64,000.
It is noted that the defense budget for 2026 was initially set at 30.3 billion dollars, but due to increasing military expenses, it was raised to 38.9 billion dollars in March.
Israeli security officials state that a budget increase is necessary to continue the military presence in Gaza and Lebanon. The final decision regarding the disagreement between the Defense and Finance Ministries will be made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The decision is expected to be announced in the coming days.
Medianews.az