U.S. spending on Israel’s military operations and related U.S operations in the region total at least $22.76 billion and counting, according to new research from the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute. This estimate is conservative; while it includes approved security assistance funding since October 7, 2023, supplemental funding for regional operations, and an estimated additional cost of operations, it does not include any other economic costs.
The report was covered exclusively today by the Associated Press.
Costs of War Project
“It has been difficult for the U.S. public, journalists and members of Congress to get an accurate understanding of the amount of military equipment and financial assistance that the U.S. government has provided to Israel’s military during the past year of war,” notes the report. “There is likewise little U.S. public awareness of the costs of the United States military’s own, related, operations in the region, particularly in and around Yemen.”
The U.S. government has approved at least $17.9 billion in security assistance for Israeli military operations in Gaza and elsewhere since October 7 – substantially more than in any other year since the U.S. began granting military aid to Israel in 1959. Yet the research notes that this is only a partial amount of the U.S. financial support provided during this war.
Related U.S. military operations in the broader region since October 7 are part of the fuller picture: In particular, the U.S. Navy has significantly scaled up its defensive and offensive operations against Houthi militants in Yemen. Hostilities have escalated to become the most sustained military campaign by U.S. forces since the 2016-2019 air war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. U.S. operations in the region and especially in Yemen, which the Houthis claim is related to Israel’s war in Gaza and is underreported in the U.S. media, have already cost the U.S. government $4.86 billion and counting.
Additionally, the analysis concludes that this Houthi-related conflict has also cost the maritime trade an additional $2.1 billion, because shippers have been forced to divert vessels or pay exorbitant insurance fees. U.S. consumers may experience paying higher prices for goods as a result.
The report, written by Costs of War contributors Linda J. Bilmes, William D. Hartung, and Stephen Semler, touches on the relationship between U.S. weapons manufacturers and the Israeli government, which have maintained longstanding commercial relations.
A second report by Costs of War released today, written by Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, provides an overview of the human costs of the Hamas strike and Israel’s military operations since October 7, 2023 in Gaza and the West Bank. This report gathers previously published data to provide an overview of the direct and indirect deaths that have resulted and will continue to result, including from the destruction of public infrastructure and livelihood sources – for instance, an estimated 90 percent of Gaza’s population (over 1.9 million people) have been displaced, and 96 percent of Gaza’s population faces acute levels of food insecurity. According to an October 2, 2024 letter to President Biden from a group of U.S. physicians, 62,413 people in Gaza have already died of starvation.
“The Costs of War project has an obligation to look at the consequences of the U.S. backing of Israel’s military operations after October 7, especially as it reverberates throughout the region,” says Stephanie Savell, director of Costs of War project. “Our project examines the human and budgetary costs of U.S. militarism at home and abroad, and for the last year, people in Gaza have suffered the highest consequences imaginable. I hope these reports can help shine a light on the wider war that is being waged, and the high price of the U.S. continuing with the choice to proceed down this path.”
The Costs of War Project is a team of 50 scholars, legal experts, human rights practitioners, and physicians, which began its work in 2010. We use research and a public website to facilitate debate about the costs of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the related violence in Pakistan and Syria. There are many hidden or unacknowledged costs of the United States’ decision to respond to the 9/11 attacks with military force. We aim to foster democratic discussion of these wars by providing the fullest possible account of their human, economic, and political costs, and to foster better informed public policies.
