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 well.

“The practical meaning of these measures is a cut of about NIS 150 million from budgets allocated for rehabilitation and development of frontline communities, at a time when government spending in these areas is expected to increase in the coming months,” Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer wrote in a letter to Smotrich signed by nine coalition and opposition lawmakers, to demand that funds for the northern communities be exempted from the cuts.

The signatories, including opposition MKs Alon Schuster and Michael Biton from Blue and White, and Yesh Atid’s Ram Ben-Barak and Tatiana Mazarsky, as well as coalition MKs Tzvika Fogel of Otma Yehudit and Nissim Vaturi from Likud, said the funds for rehabilitating and strengthening northern frontline communities were embedded in broader budget categories such as regional and infrastructure development, as well as coalition allocations approved in recent months — none of which are exempt from the across-the-board 3% cuts.

Local officials argued that these funds were not for “ordinary development” but rather “are intended to enable a long-term rehabilitation process, the return of full civilian life to an area that was hit in an unprecedented way, and the building of a stable infrastructure for growth, security, and community resilience for years to come.”

The civilians living in these areas are still suffering under an ongoing security threat, with many living in fortified rooms for long stretches.  Cutting these budgets “could delay vital projects that are already in the planning and execution stages,” they argued, precisely when it is necessary to strengthen these hard-hit regions.

“The northern communities are grappling with a complex and ongoing security reality. The budgets designated for rehabilitation, for strengthening civilian resilience, and for regional development are not luxuries; they are a top national necessity,” Kroizer wrote on X.

The budget cuts also sparked criticism from opposition figures, including former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who posted the local authorities’ letter on X and said: “While the residents of the north were sheltering under heavy barrages, government ministers cut their rehabilitation and protection budgets.”

He noted that this occurred on the same day that the government approved “NIS 5 billion of coalition funds for the [Haredi] draft dodgers.

“And now, the heads of the councils on the confrontation line are forced to beg the government to return the money they so desperately need. [This is] a government with inverted priorities, which takes care of itself and abandons its own people,” wrote Bennett, who is considered a frontrunner against Netanyahu in this year’s election.

The Democrats party leader, Yair Golan, wrote on X that “instead of rebuilding and strengthening the home front, this government is cutting budgets for rehabilitation and construction.

“This is an intolerable reality of abandonment,” he said, and “sheer cruelty. My heart is with the residents of the north who endured relentless rocket fire last night.”

These are also only the latest cuts to investment in Israel’s battered northern communities. A January audit by State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman’s Office found that the Home Front Command had frozen the “Northern Shield” program, launched in 2018, to prepare Israel’s northern civilian front for emergencies, including by addressing bomb shelter shortages, after the government transferred only about 52% of the roughly NIS 3 billion ($960 million) allocated for the project.

According to the comptroller, “The government approved a multi-year program without allocating budgetary resources, despite the issue having already been raised in a previous report.”

Visiting Kibbutz Manara on the northern border with Lebanon, where 75 percent of buildings and infrastructure were destroyed by Hezbollah rockets and suicide drones, Englman said: “The situation on the ground is deeply concerning. There is no justification for the rehabilitation of homes in Kibbutz Manara to take years.

“Rehabilitation must be swift and efficient, with maximum utilization of available resources,” he added.

Diana Bletter contributed to this report.

Are you relying on The Times of Israel for accurate and timely coverage of the Iran war right now? If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6/month, you will:

Support our independent journalists who are working around the clock under difficult conditions to cover this conflict;

Read ToI with a clear, ads-free experience on our site, apps and emails; and

Gain access to exclusive content shared only with the ToI Community, including weekly letters from founding editor David Horovitz.

We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.

You clearly find our careful reporting of the Iran war valuable, at a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.

Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically during this ongoing conflict.

So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you'll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.

Thank you,David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel

1 Hezbollah fires 200 rockets at north, Iran launches missiles in ‘integrated operation’

2 FBI said to warn California that Iran could launch drones from boat at West Coast

3 IDF says dozens of sites struck in Tehran as it moves to ‘deepen the blow’ against regime

4 Iran hits 2 oil tankers in Gulf as IDF reports striking ‘critical’ nuclear site near Tehran

5 InterviewFM Sa’ar to ToI: Only Iranians can bring down regime, but they need outside help

6 IDF admits error in not notifying public ahead of major Hezbollah barrage

7 ‘Multitude’ of US intel reports said to show Iranian regime not at risk of falling

8 Trump: Herzog is ‘weak and pathetic’ for not granting Netanyahu a pardon

2026 US-Israel war with Iran

2026 Israel-Hezbollah conflict

© The Times of Israel