Context

Israeli media have calculated how much the current conflict with the Palestinian Gaza Strip is costing the Jewish state. Thus, an hour of flight of a drone costs the Israeli budget 10 thousand shekels ($2.5 thousand), a helicopter - 100 thousand shekels ($25 thousand), an airplane - from 500 thousand to 750 thousand shekels ($126-189 thousand). ). Intercepting each Palestinian missile with the Iron Dome system costs 140-250 thousand shekels ($35-63 thousand). During the first four days of Operation Pillar of Cloud, approximately 270 missiles were intercepted.

However, the biggest cost item is the mobilization of reservists. Staying in the service of the current 16 thousand reservists costs 112 million shekels ($28.2 million) per week. If the number of called up reservists is increased to the permitted 75 thousand, costs will rise to 525 million shekels ($132.3 million) per week.

In general, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper, a day of the first stage of Operation Pillar of Cloud will cost the Israeli army 50-70 million shekels ($12.6-17.6 million) - depending on the intensity of rocket attacks on Israeli territory Palestinian extremists and the number of combat sorties carried out by the Israeli Air Force. Civil costs, including cleaning up the damage, paying compensation to victims and lost work days, could exceed 1 billion shekels ($252 million). The damage that would be caused to the country's economy in the event of a large-scale ground operation is estimated at 0.3% of annual GDP. Alexander Reutov

"Pillar of Cloud" is worth a lot