In a late-night telephone vote, the government approves transferring an additional NIS 2.6 billion (around $826 million) in budget funds to the Defense Ministry for “urgent and essential defense procurement” amid the fighting in Iran and Lebanon.
The vote comes soon after the publication of a US news report that claims Israel is running critically low on ballistic missile interceptors. There is no confirmation of the report, on the news site Semafor, and some of its details do not appear to reflect known aspects of Israel’s interception operations and processes.
In a statement, the government says it will cut NIS 1.5 billion from the 2025-2026 budget for interest and commission payments, and take the other NIS 1.1 billion out of the 2025-2026 budgets of other ministries.
It says, however, that if the 2026-2027 budget is approved later this month, as scheduled, the NIS 2.6 billion will instead come from the Defense Ministry budget as normal.
The government voted last week on a revised version of the budget that boosted the Defense Ministry’s funds by NIS 32 billion in light of the war with Iran.
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From the Liveblog of
Sunday, March 15, 2026
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