(March 13, 2024 / JNS) Israeli lawmakers approved the country’s amended war budget for 2024 on Wednesday afternoon after weeks of delay due to disagreements within the unity government. The budget bill was approved with 62 Knesset members in favor and 55 against.

The revised text, which passed through the Knesset Finance Committee last week, raises the expenditure limit to 584.1 billion shekels ($160 billion)—an addition of 70 billion shekels ($19 billion) to the original budget approved before the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion.

Measures to offset spending include a 0.15% rise in the health tax and an increase in National Insurance Institute premiums. Spending reductions include a 5% across-the-board cut to ministry budgets as well as to some government programs that seek to support the LGBT community, Ethiopian immigrants and Arab society.