19 May 2021; MEMO: Israel is making approximately $37 million in direct economic losses each day it is bombing Gaza, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has said.
Anadolu Agency reported the Israeli newspaper saying that over the first eight days of its bombing campaign of Gaza, Israel has suffered losses equal to those it made during its 50-day war on the besieged Gaza Strip in 2014.
The newspaper reported that more than 4,000 Israelis had applied for compensation for damages to their homes, furniture, vehicles and properties. Factories, warehouses, companies, shops and agricultural projects in the area around Gaza have incurred heavy losses due to the Palestinians rockets, it added.
Over the first eight days of what Israel has codenamed 'Operation Guardian of Walls', Palestinian resistance factions have launched 3,500 rockets towards Israel, compared to about 4,500 throughout the 2014 war on the enclave. As a result, in 2014 private property losses were estimated to have reached 200 shekels ($61 million), compared to 120 million ($37 million) per day this year.
Speaking to the Jerusalem Post newspaper, missile expert Uzi Rubin estimated the cost of the short-range Qassam rockets fired by Hamas to be somewhere between $300-$800 each.
Rubin, an Israeli defense engineer, pointed out that Hamas' best rockets are "relatively simply made" and "inexpensive".
Meanwhile, Tal Inbar, former chairman of the Fisher Institute's space research centre, estimated the cost of Israel's defence system, the Iron Dome's interceptors, to be between $50,000 and $100,000 each.
Hamas' longer-range rockets are only two to three times more expensive than its shorter range rockets, he added, calculating their cost as a few thousand dollars each.
Since the start of the ongoing Israeli offensive on Gaza on 10 May, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported 217 deaths, including 63 children, 36 women and 16 elderly, in addition to 1,500 wounded, including 50 who are in a critical condition. 10 Israelis have also been killed.
