Israel's costliest war has achieved nothing, local media reports

The Israeli occupation army has “failed to achieve the goals of the war on the Gaza Strip despite … a record cost of nearly $60 billion,” Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said yesterday.

In an extensive report titled ‘The costliest war and Israel’s goals have not yet been achieved: a snapshot after 3 months”,  the paper said: “According to updated figures, the cost of the war has already risen to about 217 billion shekels ($59.35 billion), and the cost includes both the army’s combat budget and extensive aid to the economy in all areas.”

The report explained that “the cost of the Israeli army’s combat day last October, including the recruitment of 360,000 reserve soldiers at the beginning of the war, reached one billion shekels ($270.35 million).”

“Due to the mass demobilisation of tens of thousands of soldiers in recent days, the cost is currently 600 million shekels ($164.11 million) per day,” added the report.

Israel has agreed to pay 300 shekels ($82) daily until the end of 2024 to each reservist soldier recruited, noting that “these payments alone have reached about 9 billion shekels ($2.46 billion) so far,” according to the newspaper.

Read: Calls for Egypt to transfer 6,000 wounded Gazans abroad

Highlighting the damage to the economy, the report said “there are about 125,000 evacuees from the north and south [of Israel]. The cost of supporting them reaches many billions of shekels. Today, everyone staying at the hotel receives 6,000 NIS [$1,618] per month for an adult and 3,000 NIS [$809] for a child. For now, it seems that many of the evacuees will not be able to return to their homes in the coming months.”

The report noted that global support for Israel is diminishing every day that the war continues.

Since 7 October, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a genocidal war on Gaza, killing 22,835 Palestinians and wounding 58,416. The devastating bombing campaign has caused massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the UN.