500 Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa.. "Hilltop Youth" Escalate Their Violence

About 500 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque this morning, Wednesday, on the fifth day of the Jewish "Sukkot" holiday, under the protection of the Israeli police. The Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem reported that the incursions took place amid ongoing strict measures around the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City.

Israeli settlers also launched an attack yesterday on the village of Jalud in the West Bank, which drew rare criticism from officials in Israel who are accustomed to downplaying settler violence despite international condemnations. More than a hundred settlers attacked the village of Jalud in the northern West Bank, resulting in the injury of three Israeli security forces members, while the army was accompanying a Palestinian family trying to return to their home after being displaced by settlers following previous attacks.

The escalating violence against Palestinians in recent months has been led by a loosely coordinated movement of hardline Israeli settlers, most of whom are young and include school dropouts, who have come from outside the West Bank and are known as "Hilltop Youth."

This movement draws its inspiration from a religious-nationalist ideology and seeks to expand the Jewish presence in the occupied West Bank by establishing unauthorized settlement outposts, often in the form of temporary tents or mobile homes, on hills outside existing Israeli settlements.

Since the 1990s, there have been groups of "anarchist" Israelis living in nature in the West Bank, but the new generation has a clear agenda to seize Palestinian land through violent means, according to Dvir Varshavsky from the "Sons of Abraham" organization, a group of religious Jewish activists supporting Palestinian rights.

A post recently shared on a channel linked to the "Hilltop Youth" movement on WhatsApp mentioned that they carried out 635 attacks in 158 Palestinian villages over the past 12 months, resulting in the injury of 409 Palestinians and the burning of 436 vehicles. These figures could not be independently verified, according to AFP.

Meanwhile, Israeli human rights experts who have monitored the "Hilltop Youth" for years confirmed that the movement gained momentum after Israel dismantled 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the West Bank as part of the unilateral "disengagement plan" initiated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005. The failure of the "old guard" in the settlement movement to prevent the evacuation of thousands of Israelis, along with dissatisfaction with the central government, led to a new phase.

More radical settlers emerged in their ideological approach, challenging "the traditional strategy of the settlement movement, which was based on building more settlements and housing more people," according to Varshavski.

The "new generation" focused on establishing small illegal outposts and agricultural projects without obtaining permits from Israeli authorities, operating under a strategy with the slogan "fewer people on more land."

Meanwhile, grazing herds of sheep and goats allowed the "Hilltop Youth" to significantly expand control over rural areas under Israeli military control.

With the rise of politicians representing the ideology of these settlers, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, these communities have received increased legitimacy and financial support in recent years, part of which is directed to illegal farms and settlement outposts, according to experts.

While the government cannot transfer direct funds to them due to their illegal status, "it funds everything else," as explained by Hagit Ofran from the organization "Peace Now," such as road construction and paving, security vehicles, surveillance cameras, solar panels, and drones, along with the protection provided by the Israeli army.

She also added that part of the funding comes from private donations and crowdfunding platforms. Ofran pointed out that "the army is not actually fighting them... they do not want to deal with them."

In contrast, some settler leaders have sought to distance themselves from this movement. At the end of last year, leaders of three local Israeli councils in the West Bank issued a joint statement urging law enforcement agencies to adopt a policy of "zero tolerance" towards the "hilltop youth," emphasizing that they "do not represent" the broader settlement movement.

Since Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, and the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza, regular soldiers have been moved away from the West Bank, and patrols around the settlements are often carried out by reserve soldiers who themselves are settlers.

In this context, experts clarified that these soldiers are much less inclined than regular soldiers to dismantle illegal settlement outposts.

It is noteworthy that violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has escalated in recent months, after its perpetrators remained largely immune from legal prosecution by Israeli authorities for years.

Except for occupied East Jerusalem, about three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, in addition to more than 500,000 Israelis residing in illegal settlements under international law.

The Israeli government recognizes about 140 settlements, while the number of farms and illegal outposts under Israeli law currently stands at around 400, according to the Israeli non-governmental organization "Peace Now" that monitors settlement activity.