Iran war caused $1.5 billion in damages to Israel: Tax Authority

Officials admit Israel lacks a national policy for reconstruction as municipalities and contractors pursue uncoordinated plans.

By World Israel News Staff

Property damage from Iranian missile attacks during June’s Operation Rising Lion has been estimated at 5 billion shekels ($1.5 billion), according to new data released by Israel’s Tax Authority, which oversees compensation claims for homeowners and property owners.

“This is a matter of national significance, and we must advance legislation that will enable the swift restoration of damaged buildings,” said Tax Authority Director General Shai Aharonovitch at the Zmora Spatial Planning and Construction Committee conference, according to a summary of his remarks by Hebrew-language outlet Mako.

Aharonovitch stressed that Israel lacks a unified national policy for post-war reconstruction on such a large scale. Instead, municipalities, contractors, and homeowners are each pursuing their own plans, leaving the process fragmented.

He added that partially damaged buildings pose a particular challenge, as it is often more complicated to repair them than to demolish and rebuild structures that were damaged beyond repair.

Speaking at the same conference, Rehovot Mayor Matan Deal described the devastation from the 12-day war as unprecedented.

“The impact was enormous — far beyond what we knew or expected until now,” Deal was quoted as saying by Mako.

Deal noted that the conflict “caused damage to tens of thousands of apartments and presents us with a true national challenge.”

He added that the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot suffered at least 1 billion shekels ($300 million) in damage, not including the loss of irreplaceable research stored in offices across campus.

During the conflict, 30 Israeli civilians were killed in Iranian missile attacks. Among the victims were two Holocaust survivors in their 90s and a Ukrainian child with cancer who had come to Israel for medical treatment.

An off-duty soldier also was killed alongside his mother and girlfriend when a missile struck their apartment building in Beersheba.