The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to allocates $1.89 million in state funding to the illegal Israeli settlers known as the “Hilltop Youth,” the Yedioth Ahronoth daily has reported.
The newspaper said on Monday that the budget was outlined in a document issued by the Settlement and National Missions Ministry, headed by Minister Orit Strock, which will oversee the transfer of funds through regional settlement councils in the occupied West Bank.
The funding plan is scheduled to run from June through the end of the year, it added.
According to the newspaper, each member of the Hilltop Youth movement would receive the equivalent of approximately $550 per month to help cover food, clothing and living expenses for more than 650 youths living in hilltop outposts and pastoral settlement sites across the occupied West Bank.
Illegal Israeli settlers
The Hilltop Youth is a movement whose members primarily live in illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank and are known for opposing efforts to remove them.
The group has frequently been linked to attacks against Palestinians and is considered the ideological nucleus of the extremist “Price Tag” movement, which has carried out attacks against Palestinians and their property.
Founded in 1998, the movement is largely composed of Israelis aged between 16 and 26, who left their homes and schools to live in illegal settlement outposts built on hilltops overlooking Palestinian communities.
The group is considered an offshoot of the extremist movement Gush Emunim, which advocates expanded Jewish settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories.
According to Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, violence by illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank has increased significantly in recent years, including attacks on Palestinian communities, farmland and property.
Since October 8, 2023, at least 1,169 Palestinians have been killed, 12,666 injured, around 23,000 arrested and approximately 33,000 displaced in the occupied West Bank amid intensified Israeli attacks and illegal settler assaults, according to Palestinian figures.
