Israeli economy on verge of bankruptcy: Iranian MP

A senior member of the Iranian parliament believes the Israeli economy is on the verge of bankruptcy as the regime has no resources to plug the massive budget holes caused by its wars on Gaza and its expanding military aggression against Lebanon.

Abolfazl Zohrevand, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Monday that Israel has suffered major economic losses since October last year when it launched its brutal war on Gaza.

Zohrevand said the regime has spent huge funds to fill the gaps created in its budget because of the rising military and logistics costs of the ongoing wars.

He said that foreign companies and investors have inflicted a major economic loss on Israel by leaving the occupied territories because of the war in Gaza.

The parliament lawmaker said the regime has also lost a major source of earning hard currency from tourism activities.

“Tourism used to play a major role in the regime’s gross domestic product but no single tourist has visited the occupied territories in the past year,” said Zohrevand, adding that loss of jobs in Israel’s hospitality sector and related industries has been massive.

The former diplomat said that Israel is spending huge sums to accommodate tens of thousands of settlers who have been displaced because of the cross-border confrontation with Lebanon’s Hezbollah over the past year.

The former diplomat said the cost of living has also soared in the Israeli-occupied territories mainly because of disruptions caused by Yemen’s attacks on ships carrying goods and commodities to Israeli ports.

Tuesday marked one year since Israel decided to invade Gaza after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched an operation into the occupied territories.

The Israeli war has killed more than 41,000 people, including many children and women.

Experts say Israel has failed to reach any of its declared objectives in the war which was to eliminate Hamas and restore stability to the occupied territories.

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