Government allocates $56 million more for benefits for IDF reservists
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

The government has approved a plan to allocate an additional NIS 200 million ($56 million) in grants to IDF reservists, extending a previously established program of benefits, until 2025.
In a joint announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz say that the newly approved funds bring the total allocated for reservists since the beginning of the war to approximately NIS 6 billion ($1.6 billion).
This new tranche of funds will cover, among other things, monthly grants and psychological support for reservists, unemployment allowances for spouses, and subsidies for summer camps for servicemembers’ children. It will also cover compensation for their employers.
“Reservists, together with active duty soldiers, have been fighting shoulder to shoulder for over a year in the war of revival that was forced upon us,” Netanyahu states, adding that the role of the government is “to help you and your families, and to ease the burden, even if only by a little bit.”
“This is a comprehensive decision that aims to make things easier for reservists and their families and provide a real solution to the challenges they face,” says Smotrich, while Katz says the measure “expresses our deep commitment to the reserve service members who sacrificed so much” to defend Israel.
Many reservists have served more than 200-300 days since October 7, 2023, and critics have accused the government of placing an unfair burden on them while working to pass legislation to enshrine in law ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students’ exemption from conscription.
Last month, Smotrich demanded that Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur amend the criteria for receiving child daycare subsidies because reservists were finding themselves “financially disadvantaged due to the reduction in their eligibility level as a result of the benefits and grants they received during the war.”