The Federation of Insurance Companies in Israel said on Sunday that the value of economic damages and losses resulting from the storms that struck Israel within a week amounted to two billion Israeli shekels (more than half a billion dollars).
The data, collected by companies, showed that the estimated damage to private property has now exceeded one and a half billion Israeli shekels, while about 50,000 claims for compensation have been submitted by insurance agents on behalf of their clients to insurance companies.
According to a statement circulated by the Federation, the value of the damage to public property has been estimated at hundreds of millions of shekels, and the government will have to obtain a special permit from the Ministry of Finance to transfer aid to the towns, given the absence of an approved budget in Israel due to the lack of a stable government in it.
According to office data, more than 25,000 vehicles were damaged during the past week due to the storm and the road accidents resulting from it.
"The scale of property damage in Israel this week is likely to exceed billions of shekels, after lawsuits are completed in the coming days," Lior Rosenfeld of the Insurance Agents office told Xinhua.
During the past two weeks, Israel witnessed a severe air depression, which caused severe damage to private and public property in dozens of Israeli towns, in addition to the death of at least seven people, according to the Medical Star of David.
On the other hand, Hebrew Channel 12 reported that the Israeli Air Force lost millions of shekels after the recent rains caused the sinking of its military base in the Negev.
According to the channel, planes and a route for takeoff, and underground warehouses to store the planes, all of which were drowned due to the flooding of a river adjacent to the base due to heavy rains during the past week.
She noted that some of the workers in the mechanical field of the aircraft almost drowned and was rescued by soldiers.
