Knesset approves 2024 budget expansion to pay for wartime costs
Debt ceiling raised in party-line vote, from 6.6% to 7.7% of GNP, unlocking NIS 33 billion ($9b) for defense spending; Knesset also extends state of emergency another year

The Knesset voted Monday night to give final approval to a bill raising the deficit cap and expanding the 2024 budget by billions to cover defense outlays, amid the ongoing war.
The law passed its second and third readings in the Knesset by a vote of 62-52, largely along party lines.
The legislation raised the deficit ceiling to 7.7 percent of gross national production, from its current cap of 6.6%.
Lifting the ceiling will allow the government to add roughly NIS 33 billion ($9 billion) to the 2024 budget, with the vast majority of the funds going to defense spending.
Shortly beforehand, the Knesset voted to extend the country’s state of emergency until December 16, 2025, in accordance with the recommendation of the security cabinet. Twenty-nine MKs voted in support of that resolution, while seven voted against.
The Knesset last extended the state of emergency in May but did so then for only six months. The state of emergency — which has been in place continuously since the country’s founding — allows the cabinet to issue regulations that override Knesset legislation.

2025 budget still in the works
The 2025 Budget Bill itself narrowly passed its first reading earlier this month, despite opposition from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, triggered by a coalition fight over the attorney general, whose ouster is sought by the right-wing flank of the government.
The fate of the budget also depends on ultra-Orthodox parties, which have demanded a law to explicitly exempt Haredi men from mandatory military service.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, speaking to the Knesset plenum on Monday, claimed Defense Minister Israel Katz had presented the ultra-Orthodox parties with the outline of such a bill, while keeping it secret from the public.
Under various budget bills and economic plans that have passed the first of the three readings needed to become law, the national state budget for 2025 will stand at approximately NIS 609 billion ($169 billion).
Of that, some NIS 108 billion ($30 billion) will be allocated to the Defense Ministry, NIS 92 billion ($25.6 billion) to the Education Ministry and NIS 60 billion ($16.7 billion) to the Health Ministry.
In all, the budget includes nearly NIS 40 billion package of tax hikes and spending cuts to try to rein in a budget deficit now running at 8.5% of GDP.
In addition to its direct demands on defense spending, the war has dealt a hit to the economy, amid plummeted tourism and hundreds of days of military reserve service by workers and business owners.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.