Teams from Israel’s Tax Authority have handled 14,583 cases of direct damage from Iran’s strikes on Israel and worked with 2,775 residents who have been evacuated from homes due to damage as of Monday evening, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said.
Some 24 buildings were identified as needing to be demolished following damage from Iranian strikes, Smotrich said.
The Tax Authority has 100 teams handling property damage compensation, 82 of which were in the field on Monday, he added.
Evacuees from homes damaged by Iranian strikes are immediately granted NIS 500, and their municipality gets NIS 1500 per evacuee, the minister explained. Most of the evacuees were put up in hotels by their local municipalities.
The authority’s hotline, which is staffed by 150 operators, has taken 12,000 calls since the outbreak of the state of emergency, and calls have an average wait time of 10 minutes, the minister said.
Israel to provide economic support during war with Iran
Smotrich also outlined some of the additional actions taken by his ministry to provide economic support during the state of emergency. Budgets were transferred to municipalities, and tax reporting deadlines and trade insurance programs were extended to support the continuity of exports and imports.
The minister also highlighted a public bond auction on Monday, where Israel sold NIS 2.75 billion ($785 million) of various debt maturities in a sale that was multiple times oversubscribed, saying that this is a sign of Israel’s economic strength.
He added that Israel entered the operation after predictions for state income were adjusted up by NIS 21b., saying that this is a result of the strength of the economy and the application of responsible policy steps.
Steven Scheer and Karin Strohecker/Reuters contributed to this report.