Almost one-third of employees in Israel were already battling lower monthly incomes as they struggled to recover from the financial fallout of more than two years of war sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, according to a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute released on Monday.

Now the country’s working population, the backbone of the economy, has been hit with yet another blow amid fresh restrictions as Israel fights another war with Iran.

Nationwide restrictions amid the war with Iran which erupted on February 28 left most businesses, schools and educational activities closed. At the end of last week, workplaces reopened to ease the cost of shutting down the entire economy but the education system remained closed.

This has created a situation where many parents were and are still unable to work because they could not leave their young children home alone as Iran has continued to fire volleys of missiles at Israel, while the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon has been firing rockets at communities across northern Israel.

“The decision to open the economy while the education system is closed has created an intolerable situation in which parents are forced to choose between their livelihood and caring for their children,” said National Labor Federation chairman Yoav Simchi on Monday.

Earlier this week, the Finance Ministry presented an initial compensation framework for employees with a focus on working parents, who chose or needed to go on unpaid leave for reasons related to the Iran war. According to the emerging framework, for the unpaid leave period, employees would receive unemployment benefits from the government, subject to eased eligibility conditions, which have yet to be published.

However, unemployment payments will not be........

© The Times of Israel