The government and the IDF will grant NIS 3.25 billion additional benefits to career officers and mandatory service soldiers, they announced on Sunday.
The funds are meant to help with the drastic additional crunch the war has placed on their lives, beyond the difficulties that the whole country has gone through.
Some of these funds would replace lost salaries of spouses who lost their jobs due to caring for the officer/soldier who may have been physically or emotionally harmed so badly as to need regular care.
Other funds will help them receive financial benefits if they missed the opportunity to use special grants for academic studies or other benefits.
There will be payments for IDF career track officers
Additional funds will facilitate IDF career track officers and their families in getting discounts and making various payments using a special internal IDF digital platform.
Further, some of the funds will subsidize the housing needs of military personnel.
A joint message was sent out about the financial grant and new policies by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, with separate information being distributed by the IDF.
The announcement comes as the government takes heat for failing to draft haredim (ultra-Orthodox) throughout the two-year war, with a potential new bill exempting large numbers of haredim being sponsored by some government officials, and with Smotrich threatening to cut the IDF’s budget in a variety of areas now that the war is likely over.
Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Yashar Party, criticized the government’s move amid the new haredi draft bill tensions.
“A real relief for IDF service members will come only when many more will join them in sharing the burden of service,” he stated. “A government that truly cares about easing the burden on those who serve will not advance a fake law granting broad exemptions from service.”
Netanyahu said the government stands with the career soldiers, “who are the backbone of the IDF and dedicate their lives to Israel’s security.”
Smotrich said the government will continue to act on behalf of soldiers.
Katz spoke on the role career soldiers have, calling them and their families “the beating heart of the IDF.”
“They carry the weight of the country’s security day and night, both in routine times and in the difficult two years since the outbreak of the war,” he added.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said, “The state must stand behind those who carry its security on their shoulders.”