Who are the ‘Hilltop Girls’ behind Israel’s ‘soft settlement’ strategy?

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkIsraeli youths sit near new barracks at the former Amona outpost near Ofra in the occupied West Bank on December 16, 2018 [File: Menahem Kahana/AFP]By Al Jazeera StaffPublished On 3 Sep 20263 Sep 2026A radical movement of young Israeli women is leaving civilian life and education behind to live in rudimentary hilltop tents across the occupied West Bank.Dubbed the “Hilltop Girls”, this group champions a strategy of “soft settlement”, replacing weapons and military patrols with seemingly mundane daily activities.By portraying their presence as a natural, family-oriented social project, they aim to legitimise the gradual seizure of private Palestinian land and the establishment of new outposts.So who are these young women?The latest version of the ‘Hilltop Youth’The women are in many ways an extension of the Hilltop Youth a radical religious Zionist group that emerged in 1998 when then-Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon urged settler youths to seize West Bank hilltops to preempt final status negotiations.While the broader movement is infamous for orchestrating deadly pogroms and seizing territory by force, the female offshoot embraces an ideology geared towards establishing a “Greater Israel” that extends beyond historic Palestine to include Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula.Social media settlersTo normalise their presence, the Hilltop Girls heavily rely on social media.Outpost accounts publish promotional videos aiming to move away from the more violent images associated with marauding Israeli settlers, who are often backed and shielded by the country’s security forces.The female settlers claim they do not kill Palestinians or assault landowners, but merely cook and hang laundry like any other group of women.But their end goals are similar – to establish the so-called Promised Land, including through the extension of Israel to the occupied West Bank. Their presence in the West Bank is no less illegal than that of violent extremists. And they too are transforming Palestinian pastoral land into fully-fledged settlements in violation of international law.Strategic expansionThe Maoz Esther and Or Ahuvia outposts, located northeast of Ramallah, serve as prime examples of this systematic expansion.Established in 2006 as a small youth outpost, Maoz Esther was demolished and rebuilt multiple times before expanding into what is now known as the “Girls’ Hill”. By 2025, it housed 17 families and more than 50 children, exceeding the size of the neighbouring 950-dunam (235-acre) Kochav HaShahar settlement.Similarly, the Or Ahuvia outpost, established in 2023 near the Ofra settlement, reflects a broader vision to create a massive settlement bloc. The ultimate goal is to connect more than 20 outposts to Ofra, creating an integrated network capable of absorbing thousands of families in the future.State complicityWhile Israeli police occasionally dismantle these outposts on camera, rights activists describe these operations as a coordinated theatrical display.According to the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, most outposts enjoy direct support from the state and the army, with the women immediately rebuilding structures as soon as police depart. Logistically, these outposts are supplied with water, electricity, private road networks and military protection by the Israeli Civil Administration.Furthermore, the government provides nearly $40m in food and clothing subsidies to Hilltop Youth members.The movement enjoys unprecedented legislative and political cover. In early 2025, the Knesset advanced a bill proposed by the “Land of Israel” lobby to allow Jews to purchase land in the West Bank freely, ensuring these acquisitions remain protected even in the event of future political agreements.Politicians like far-right Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir actively support these outposts, while Defence Minister Israel Katz recently boasted to his party: “I cancelled, on my own initiative, all administrative orders against settlers in the West Bank.”The human toll of this ideological expansion is devastating. Between January 2025 and May 2026, the United Nations recorded at least 2,806 settler attacks, averaging five incidents a day.Prominent Hilltop Youth leader Elisha Yered recently summarised their violent strategy on a podcast, stating: “We’re very proud of initiating friction; even the army is in friction.”In 2026 alone, systematic settler pogroms displaced nearly 2,000 Palestinians, prompting both the UN and the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to reiterate that these relentless land grabs fundamentally undermine the possibility of a viable Palestinian state.