The Israeli government approved a budget of 827 million dollars for “emergency” military purchases, the Israeli press wrote on Sunday, more than two weeks after the start of the Israeli-American war against Iran, reports AFP.
This amount of 2.6 billion shekels was decided on the night of Friday to Saturday by the ministers in a telephone meeting. It will serve for “security purchases” and to meet “urgent needs,” according to Haaretz, without giving further details.
The information emerged in the public space after Semaphore wrote that Israel had told the Americans that its stocks of interceptors had reached a “critical” level, information denied on Sunday by a senior official.
“An exceptional emergency decision”
According to the Finance Ministry document presented to ministers and released on Sunday morning, “given the intensity of the fighting, there is an urgent and immediate need to provide an operational response that includes the procurement of ammunition, the equipping of advanced weapons and the renewal of critical combat stocks.”
It also states that “it is an exceptional emergency decision intended to meet exclusively the needs generated by the conduct of the fighting”.
This amount will be taken from the $222 billion state budget approved by the government on March 12 and which should be adopted by March 31 by the Knesset (parliament).
Benjamin Netanyahu's government has not yet officially communicated on this issue, nor has it specified for which purchases these sums will be allocated.
Since the beginning of the February 28 Israeli-American bombing of Iran, Israel has been the daily target of Iranian ballistic missile fire, which the military manages to destroy in the vast majority of cases thanks to its interceptors. Twelve people were killed by these Iranian missiles or their debris.
Iran continues to fire missiles at Israel
According to Haaretz, citing security officials, 250 ballistic missiles had been fired by Iran at Israel by March 13. The Israeli military estimates that about 50 percent of Iranian missiles fired at Israel are equipped with submunition warheads.
Asked at a press conference Sunday morning, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied that he had informed the United States about the depletion of the missile interceptor stockpile. “The answer is no,” Katz said.
According to the N12 television station, starting from Saturday night into Sunday, Iranian missiles were fired at Israel at a rate of one salvo every 90 minutes. Seven volleys of Iranian ballistic missiles targeted the country since midnight, the Times of Israel said at noon.
