Five weeks into Israel's war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, Israelis are spending less but a recovery may have begun after a steep drop at the start of the conflict, the Bank of Israel said on Tuesday. The central bank said that since the war's outbreak, credit card spending - a key indicator of consumer expenditures that is more than half of economic output - is down 9% from its forecast level, but off a low of 20% after the first three weeks. It said spending, based on daily data received from Israel's credit card processing firm, has slid on education, flights, hotels, car rentals, fuel, transport and restaurants, but risen in supermarkets due to what it called "the public's initial concerns of a shortage of products" and calls by authorities to stockpile food for 72 hours.