Israeli cabinet ministers are to start voting later today on a long-awaited wartime budget for 2025 that will rein in spending and raise a host of taxes to pay for the military conflicts that have engulfed the country.

Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon have cost the country billions of dollars on spending for defence – for military equipment, compensation for those impacted and manpower after hundreds of thousands of citizens were called for reserve duty.

“Our security also depends on the economy. We cannot have a strong military if we have no way of financing it,” PM Benjamin Netanyahu said at the outset of a cabinet meeting before the budget vote, which could run into the night.

“There is no economy without restrictions. If you give to one place, you unfortunately need to take from another,” he said.