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Israel’s Costly Defense Against Iran Onslaught Leads to Calls to Increase Budget
An anti-missile system operates after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, April 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel must increase its defense budget significantly after seeing the high cost of defending the Jewish state against Iran’s massive drone and missile salvo on Saturday night, according to a former adviser to Israel’s top military official.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has “no chance of reaching a situation where you are able to maintain the required defense” unless the country’s current military budget is “doubled,” Brig. Gen. (Res.) Ram Aminach, the former economic adviser to the military’s chief of staff, told Israeli television on Sunday.
Israel, with the help of allies including the US, repelled the Iranian attack with striking success. According to IDF Chief Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, “99 percent of the threats launched towards Israeli territory were intercepted — a very significant strategic achievement. Of approximately 170 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that Iran launched, zero crossed into Israeli territory. From the more than 30 cruise missiles Iran launched, none crossed into Israeli territory.”
Additionally, “out of over 120 ballistic missiles, only a few crossed into Israeli territory, with the rest being intercepted.”
However, defending against Iran’s more than 300 drones and missiles cost Israel between 4 and 5 billion NIS ($1-$1.3 billion), according to the IDF. These figures included the high cost of operating the army’s coveted air defense systems such as the Arrow and David’s Sling, both of which were used on Saturday and can cost more than a few million dollars per firing.
Aminach argued that it’s much cheaper for Iran to continue launching such attacks than it is for Israel to defend them, presenting a potential problem of attrition for the Jewish state unless Jerusalem increases its defense budget.
“For the Iranians, it costs less than 10 percent of what it costs us to stop it,” he explained. “If we look into the future, in a year, two years, or five years, they can also conduct 50 such attacks, and you want to be ready for the number of attacks. So, we need to try to understand how much defense we need. Let’s say if the IDF’s net budget in 2023 was 60 billion shekels, with less than double that you have no chance of reaching the required quantities.”
When asked where the additional money would come from, Aminach claimed that bringing Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish population more into the workforce would “contribute to the GDP approximately 150 billion.”
Aminach’s comments came as Iran threatened to up the scale of its attack if Israel chose to retaliate. “If the Zionist regime or its supporters demonstrate reckless behavior, they will receive a decisive and much stronger response,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said of a potential Israeli response.
World leaders, especially in the US and Europe, have been urging Israel to show restraint in its response and to de-escalate tensions.
Saturday’s unprecedented attack was the first time that Iran targeted Israel directly from Iranian soil rather than through its proxies, a move that drew global condemnation. A coalition of the US, Britain, France, Jordan, and even Saudi Arabia reportedly helped with either Israel’s defense or providing intelligence about Iran’s attack. The onslaught sounded sirens throughout Israel, with loud booms being felt far from their impact.
Leading up to the attack, Iranian officials had promised revenge for an airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria last week that Iranian officials have attributed to Israel. The strike killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a US-designated terrorist organization, including two senior commanders. One of the commanders allegedly helped plan the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the incident.
The post Israel’s Costly Defense Against Iran Onslaught Leads to Calls to Increase Budget first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.