“The war (on Gaza) was a huge breaking point for the (Israeli) economy which is still ongoing,” Professor Benjamin Bental from the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies was quoted as saying in December by The Median Line website.
“There are tremendous consequences that we still cannot estimate the end of.”
A RAND analysis in 2015 estimated that the financial impact of any conflict between the Israeli regime and Palestine in the next ten years would be to the tune of $400 billion.
Daniel Ege, the director of the Economics and National Security Initiative at the RAND Corporation, who authored that report, in an article published in November made a fresh assessment.
“For Israel, 90 percent of the economic shock will come from the indirect effects: reduced investment, a disrupted labor market, and slowed productivity growth. The specifics of this current crisis will, of course, differ from our model and the past,” he wrote.
Israeli ports hit the hardest
In the past five months, gas fields in the occupied territories have dried, airlines have become defunct, farms have been destroyed, major businesses have shut down and ports have been empty.
Colossal losses have been recorded at ports occupied by the Israeli regime, most notably the Port of Umm Al-Rashrash (Eilat), which recorded a 90 percent drop in traffic and $3 billion in direct losses.
“All cargoes arriving in Eilat through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the Far East, i.e. China, Japan, South Korea and India, are no longer transported because ships are afraid to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait,” Gideon Golber, CEO of the Eilat port company, said late January.
Golber’s company deals primarily with the import of cars and export of potassium fertilizers, and before October 7, 50,000 new cars were stored at the port. Yemeni military’s actions in support of Gaza have virtually brought business activities at the bustling port to a grinding halt.
“If Yemeni operations in the Red Sea continue, we will reach a situation where there are no ships in the port,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters, referring to the repercussions of the Red Sea events.
Eilat Port has also been struck with missiles by both the Yemeni military and the Iraqi resistance groups, sending ripples of shock and fear among investors and shipowners there.
The two other major Israel-occupied international ports, Haifa and Ashdod, a third of whose transport depends on the Red Sea, have also recorded heavy losses, with a 70 percent drop in transshipment.
Yemeni military has carried out a string of operations against ships linked to the Israeli regime or its Western backers, mainly the US and the UK, in the Red Sea in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
The operations have forced major shipping companies doing trade with the Israeli regime to avoid the strategic waterway in recent months, incurring staggering losses for the regime.
Amid the continuation of the Yemeni military’s operations against ships trading with the Israeli regime in the Red Sea, it is to be expected that the losses will continue to pile up.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has also carried out attacks on the Israeli-occupied ports, including Haifa and Ashdod, as well as the natural reserves in the Mediterranean Sea.
Haifa Port (situated on the Mediterranean) is believed to store about 90 percent of essential commodities destined for the occupied Palestinian territories.
The operations of the strategic port were taken over by Indian business conglomerate Adani Group in February, months after a consortium of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Israel’s Gadot Group won the tender to privatize it for a mammoth USD 1.18 billion.