Zionist media: 12-day war with Iran brought Israel’s economy back to the era of corona.
Citing Beirut News, the Zaman Israel website added: Despite claims of significant military gains, the confrontation between Tel Aviv and Tehran came at a heavy cost, and Iran responded with a heavy missile attack by launching 500 ballistic missiles.
The website continued its report: Officials in Tel Aviv claimed that the Arrow and THAAD systems intercepted 86 percent of the Iranian missiles, but the missiles that were not intercepted caused serious damage to Israel’s vital infrastructure and scientific research, causing huge and widespread financial losses to the economy and great suffering for Israelis, killing and injuring many of them.
The Zionist media emphasized that, compared to previous missile attacks, the attacks by Iran were deadly, leaving 29 dead and 3,238 wounded. All of these deaths occurred while most Israelis were in shelters and protected areas, having been warned to stay near the shelters, and schools and a large part of offices, businesses, and entertainment centers were closed.
“If it weren’t for these security measures, the human toll would have been much higher,” Zaman Israel added.
The Israeli media outlet noted that Bezalel Smotrich (Israeli Finance Minister) supported the war but refused to disclose its financial costs.
Meanwhile, a source in one of the Israeli economy ministries told the Zaman Israel website that the direct cost of the 12-day war with Iran was estimated at 22 billion shekels. This amount includes the budget for weapons, aircraft fuel, operational defense systems, the mobilization of reserve forces, annuity payments to absent employees and payments to hotels that accommodate Israelis whose homes were destroyed. Still, it does not include the loss of economic activity caused by the closure and compensation paid to companies from the compensation fund.
He stated that for nine of the 12 days of the war, most businesses, except those designated as essential, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, and those working remotely, were closed by order of the The Home Front Command was closed, as a result, the Israeli economy functioned like how it operated during the coronavirus pandemic, when the economy lost 5.5 billion shekels for every week of closure.
Meanwhile, the head of the Zionist Manufacturers Association told this news outlet that “the amount of damage from the 12-day war with Iran has exceeded 7 billion shekels. In the short term, this damage is entirely borne by business owners. In the long term, the Israeli cabinet will pay them some, but not all, of this money as part of a compensation agreement to cover indirect losses from the 12-day war with Iran.