Israeli cabinet to vote on 2024 wartime budget

Israel's cabinet will approve a 2024 wartime budget on Thursday, according to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

As part of the budget, Israeli ministers approved 9bn shekels ($2.5bn) in financial support for military reservists.

"The state of Israel puts the reservists and their families at the centre and this is the anchor of the budget for 2024 that we will deliver," Smotrich said in a joint statement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday.

Israel last year approved a two-year budget for 2023 and 2024, but the war in Gaza has prompted changes in budget and additional spending.

In December, Israel's parliament approved a special war budget for 2023 of around 30bn shekels.

The finance ministry said the war was likely to cost at least another 50bn shekels this year, and result in a near-tripling of its budget deficit to around 6 percent of GDP.