The government’s decision to cut approximately NIS 150 million ($48 million) as part of a wider three percent cut, to bolster the budget for the war with Iran and its Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah, has elicited widespread opposition. Those against the move include the communities living on the borders with Lebanon and Gaza, opposition lawmakers, as well as members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

The representatives of the Confrontation Line Forum, Sdot Negev Regional Council and other local governmental bodies urged the prime minister and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to spare programs “intended to restore and strengthen the frontline areas of the State of Israel.

“We ask you, the prime minister and the finance minister, to exclude [this] funding from the cuts, and to ensure that the funding intended for the rehabilitation and development of the confrontation areas and the Gaza perimeter will be maintained in full,” they wrote.

The missive came just a day after hundreds of thousands of northern residents were repeatedly sent to shelters as Hezbollah blasted some 200 rockets and drones at the north, which has again become an epicenter of fighting.

More than 60,000 residents of northern communities were evacuated when Hezbollah began attacking Israel with rockets, missiles and drones a day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion. In late 2024, Israel launched a massive campaign against the group that caused it immense damage, and which ended in a November 2024 ceasefire. But rebuilding the scorched north took time, and many residents had only recently returned to their homes.

Ministers voted on Tuesday to slash the budgets of all ministries but defense by 3 percent, and to add NIS 28 billion ($9 billion) to the NIS 112 billion ($34 billion) defense budget. At the same time, they approved the dispersal of over NIS 5 billion ($1.6 billion) in discretionary coalition funds for Haredi institutions, West Bank settlements, and other party priorities in the 2026 state budget.

The impact of the budget cuts on northern communities has caused pushback from within the coalition as........

© The Times of Israel