Data from Israel Bonds reveals that the Israeli government desperately sold Treasury bonds at a record value since October 7, 2023.
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Outside the Bank of Israel building in occupied al-Quds, occupied Palestine, undated. (AFP)
On Wednesday, Israeli media revealed that the Israeli government sold treasury bonds worth $3 billion since October 7, 2023, according to data from Israel Bonds, the US underwriter of debt securities issued by “Israel”.
As the Israeli economy faces extreme difficulty because of the toll of the war on Gaza, Israeli website Ynet reported that the buyers were from states, cities, and organizations in the United States that purchased the bonds as an act of solidarity with “Israel” and to aid its economy as it plummets.
During the first month of the war alone, “Israel” collected $1 billion from bond sales, the average annual sales recorded in previous years, according to the organization. It’s worth emphasizing that “Israel” has been the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II. According to official American indicators, the total amount of aid provided by the United States to Israel between 1946 and 2023 amounted to approximately $158.6 billion.
In March, “Israel” decided to sell its first international bonds on the public market, marking the first such issuance since the outbreak of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, as reported by Bloomberg.
Last year, the Occupation Ministry of Finance estimated that “the war is costing the economy $270 million per day,” noting that the end of the war “does not mean that the losses will stop.”
Heavy toll on economy
The Financial Times newspaper reported earlier that “Israel” had borrowed billions of dollars to help finance its war on Gaza. Still, it was forced to pay unusually high borrowing costs to complete the deals.
The genocide in Gaza has had a significant toll on the Israeli economy. The drafting of reservists impacted several crucial economic sectors, including the tech industry, commerce, and tourism, among others.
In addition to the Israeli losses during its ongoing war on Gaza, the recent Iranian retaliatory attack has shaken the Israeli occupation army even further. Iran’s attack proved to be highly costly for “Israel”, with the National Security Research Institute revealing that it cost the Israeli occupation a hefty 4.5 billion shekels ($1.3 billion) to intercept drones and missiles launched by Tehran, and even that not allow them to down all of the projectiles, Israeli Channel 13 correspondent Matan Hodorov said.
The air defense munitions used to intercept the Iranian projectiles cost some 8% of the Israeli occupation’s security budget before the start of the war on Gaza.
