JERSUALEM \u2014 The Knesset today passed its 2026 budget, including roughly $44.8 billion for defense, an increase of roughly $9.48 billion over the previous year\u2019s military budget.<\/p>\n
The vote, held in the early hours, approved an overall record $268 billion in government funding for 2026 and passed by a vote of 62-55. And with a supplemental related to the war with Iran expected<\/a>, defense spending may increase again before the year is through.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s defense budget has undergone major increases in recent years, reflecting the country\u2019s shift from low-level conflicts to a multi-front war that began on Oct. 7, 2023. In 2015-2016, the overall budget\u00a0stood<\/a>\u00a0at $103 billion and the\u00a0defense<\/a>\u00a0budget was $17.65 billion \u2014 roughly a 153 percent increase in just ten years.<\/p>\n But that number is even more astounding when you realize defense spending remained roughly the same from 2015 to 2022. It\u00a0jumped<\/a>\u00a0to around $30 billion in 2024. Funding that year also had to cover costs related to evacuating Israeli communities in the face of war and rebuilding defenses along the borders; as well as\u00a0funding<\/a>\u00a0the large reserve army of some 300,000 people who had been called up.<\/p>\n Israel has also had to add supplemental budgets due to the cost of war. In 2025 the supplemental budget\u00a0amounted<\/a>\u00a0to another $12.5 billion, on top of the $32.7 billion defense budget, for a total<\/a> of $42.7 billion, nearly what it is\u00a0expected<\/a>\u00a0to be in 2026.<\/p>\n Discussing Israel\u2019s \u201clong and costly war,\u201d Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe core of the budget is the addition of tens of billions so that we can finish the campaign and dramatically improve our geopolitical and diplomatic standing. We will be able to dismantle and reassemble the Middle East. This budget gives the country the ability to win.\u201d<\/p>\n The Joint Committee of the Finance Committee and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved the 2026 defense budget on March 24. It\u00a0passed<\/a>\u00a0the committee unanimously and reflects increased investment for Operation Roaring Lion, the Israeli strikes on Iran that began on February 28.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has been conducting intensive and continuous work these days surrounding the war,\u201d committee chair MK Boaz Bismuth\u00a0said<\/a>. In addition, \u201capproximately \u20aa22 billion [$7 billion] constitute expenditure contingent on income, including the U.S. aid grant and other revenues,\u201d while \u201cabout \u20aa82.2 billion [$25.8 billion] are allocated for future commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n The costs of the war and investment in various defense systems also include outlays for rehabilitation and support for wounded soldiers and others affected by the long war. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael has shown that in an agile and innovative economy, a heavy expenditure on defence can actually be translated into powerful engines for growth,\u201d Eran Lerman, a former deputy for foreign policy and international affairs at the national security council in the Israeli prime minister\u2019s office, told Breaking Defense.<\/p>\n Lerman, who is also vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, noted that even if some thought the war would \u201cbreak our neck, in practice it became more muscle bound.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In general, the increased budget is not seen as a surprise in Israel, considering the ongoing wars and daily rocket fire from Iran, which sends millions of people to bomb shelters several times a day.<\/p>\n In addition to the current war effort, Israel has been seeking to invest more in local defense industries and procurement. For instance, Israel\u2019s Ministry of Defense said in a statement on March 30 that \u201cas part of its ongoing effort to bolster IDF operational endurance and readiness for the evolving campaign,\u201d it had completed a deal with Elbit Systems for $48 million worth of 155mm artillery shells.<\/p>\n \u201cThe munitions will be manufactured at Elbit facilities nationwide, where thousands of employees are already working around the clock in three shifts at the Ministry\u2019s direction,\u201d the ministry noted. It added that this was part of its broader strategy \u201cto reduce reliance on external munitions sources and grow Israel\u2019s domestic defense production base.\u201d The ministry has been focused on\u00a0accelerating<\/a>\u00a0production of munitions during the war.<\/p>\n The ministry said on March 26 that to keep Israel supplied amid the Iran conflict, 200 cargo aircraft had landed<\/a> in Israel in roughly a month of war. The ministry did not specify where the aircraft have arrived from. They have been \u201ccarrying approximately 8,000 tons of military equipment, weaponry, and munitions,\u201d the ministry said. \u201cThe air and sea bridge serves as a critical component in this effort, strengthening operational continuity, supporting the full range of IDF needs, and enhancing readiness and stockpiles.\u201d<\/p>\n The changes in the multi-front conflict as Israel has shifted focus from Gaza to Lebanon and Iran has also resulted in changes to the budget and the supplemental additions over the years. The Gaza conflict, which began with the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, wound down with a ceasefire in mid-October 2025, though the IDF continues to keep several brigades in Gaza. On March 2, days after the conflict with Iran began, the IDF also launched\u00a0operations<\/a>\u00a0against Hezbollah in response to attacks from the group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JERSUALEM \u2014 The Knesset today passed its 2026 budget, including roughly $44.8 billion for defense, an increase of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[18327,3804,34,37,49,11861],"class_list":{"0":"post-43554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-defense-budget","9":"tag-global","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-middle-east","13":"tag-munitions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}