Hundreds of thousands of Israelis unemployed as war intensifies
Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly considering the closure of some government offices in order to help cover the war effort
Around 260,000 Israelis have applied for unemployment benefits since the start of the war, Hebrew media reported on 8 January. Over 7,200 Israeli applied for unemployment benefits in the first week of January alone, with 3,389 of them on unpaid leave.
The applications come despite the fact that the Israeli Finance Ministry said it would not extend the program this month.
The Gaza-Israel war has had a devastating effect on the Israeli economy.
"There are about two million Israelis living below the poverty line," the Hebrew Makanoutlet reported on 29 December.
The Axis of Resistance has played a significant role in the mounting costs inflicted on Israel. Due to the Yemeni attacks carried out on vessels linked to or bound for Israel, revenue from Israel’s port of Eilat in the occupied south has plummeted by 80 percent, the Israeli news outlet, Calcalist, reported last month.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has inflicted similar losses on Israel’s northern settlements.
Makan reported on Monday that the percentage of sales in the north of Israeli had fallen by 70 percent.
This is due to “intense fear and anxiety,” the outlet said, as well as the fact that hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers have been forced to flee their homes in the north, resulting in a collapse of commerce in these areas.
Head of the Matah Asher Regional Council in the western Galilee, Moshe Dowidowicz, said that those in the north are living in “uncertainty” and "a large segment of them have no source of income.”
Dowidowicz said that Hezbollah poses the greatest danger to the north, adding that this danger is “not limited to the security situation, but extends to the psychological and economic situation.”
Last week, Hebrew news Channel 12 said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering the closure of some government offices in order use to their funds to cover the war effort.