Israel approves $840 million cut from ministries' budgets for emergency defense purchases

According to the news of Israeli state television KAN, the proposal that cuts from the budgets of other ministries and transfer them to the Ministry of Defense was discussed at the cabinet meeting.

The proposal, which foresees a 5 percent cut from the budgets of other ministries and allocating them for urgent defense purchases, was approved by the Council of Ministers.

Thus, despite the opinion of Ministry of Finance experts to the contrary, a new revision was made in the 2026 budget and it was decided to allocate approximately 840 million dollars to the Ministry of Defense for urgent defense purchases.

While the type of procurement or security reasons were not clearly stated in the decision text, it was claimed that postponing the budget approval until the formation of a new government after the elections on October 27 could harm the necessary security measures.

The Israeli press pointed out that this decision of the government came just a few days after the decision to cut 1 billion shekels (about 322 million dollars) to finance the purchase of 12 Apache attack helicopters.

It was noted that the previous cut for the Apache purchase was made from the five-year development plan fund allocated for Palestinian Israeli citizens.

The Tel Aviv administration approved a general cut of 3 percent from ministry budgets in March, and Israel's defense budget for 2026 exceeded 45 billion dollars.