National Insurance Paid Billions in Post-Oct 7 Benefits

Three years after the October 7th attacks, Israel's National Insurance Institute has released a report detailing the immense civilian cost of the ongoing conflict. The report reveals that over the past three years, the institute has disbursed approximately 58 billion shekels in reserve duty benefits alone, paid out on a continuous monthly basis for the first time. The labor market also experienced significant disruption, with unemployment benefits totaling 4.2 billion shekels distributed across three major combat operations: "Iron Swords" (2.5 billion to 210,000 unemployed), "Sons of Arnon" (1.7 billion to 196,000 individuals), and "With All Our Might" (approximately 500 million to 100,000 people). To prevent widespread job loss, 1.2 billion shekels were provided as return-to-work grants to 74,000 employees.

The war also reshaped Israel's residential landscape, with the state allocating over 5 billion shekels in housing grants to 190,000 evacuees who opted against staying in hotels. Notably, evacuees from the north received significantly more support, with 3.8 billion shekels allocated to 63,000 individuals, compared to 1.3 billion shekels for 131,000 evacuees from the south. As residents began returning home, the National Insurance Institute provided an additional 1.42 billion shekels in return grants to 110,000 residents and 272 million shekels in unemployment compensation.

The most devastating figures relate to casualties. Over 9 billion shekels have been transferred to the families of hostages, fallen soldiers, and victims of hostilities, with this sum surging from 800 million in 2023 to 3 billion in the current year. Since the war's outset, the institute has been processing 87,286 victims of hostilities, with 84,000 receiving immediate aid totaling 662 million shekels. Among the more than 40,000 individuals officially recognized as disabled, a staggering 34,878 civilians were deemed disabled due to psychological trauma, in contrast to only 3,171 physical injuries. While the state funds rehabilitation expenses exceeding 750 million shekels, the report concludes that healing the nation's psyche will take many more years.