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

Young Israeli women are adopting an ostensibly peaceful, domestic lifestyle on West Bank hilltops to quietly expand illegal outposts and realise a vision of a ‘Greater Israel’.

Israeli 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]

A 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 settlers

To 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.

The 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.

While 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.

年轻的以色列女性在西岸山顶上过着看似和平的家庭生活，实则悄悄扩大非法据点，实现“大以色列”的愿景。

2018 年 12 月 16 日，以色列青年坐在被占领的约旦河西岸奥夫拉附近前阿莫纳哨所的新营房旁。[图片：Menahem Kahana/AFP]

一群激进的以色列年轻女性放弃了平民生活和教育，搬到被占领的西岸地区，住在山顶上简陋的帐篷里。

这个被称为“山顶女孩”的团体倡导“软性定居”策略，用看似平凡的日常活动取代武器和军事巡逻。

他们将自己的存在描绘成一个自然的、以家庭为导向的社会项目，其目的是使逐步侵占巴勒斯坦私人土地和建立新的前哨站合法化。

那么，这些年轻女性是谁呢？

最新版本的《山顶青年》

这些妇女在很多方面都是“山顶青年”的延伸。“山顶青年”是一个激进的宗教犹太复国主义团体，成立于 1998 年，当时以色列外交部长阿里埃勒·沙龙敦促定居者青年占领西岸山顶，以阻止最终地位谈判。

虽然整个运动因策划致命的种族清洗和武力夺取领土而臭名昭著，但女性分支所信奉的意识形态旨在建立一个“大以色列”，其范围不仅限于历史上的巴勒斯坦，还包括埃及、约旦、黎巴嫩、叙利亚、伊拉克和阿拉伯半岛。

社交媒体定居者

为了使自己的存在正常化，山顶女孩们非常依赖社交媒体。

Outpost 账号发布宣传视频，旨在摆脱与以色列定居者劫掠相关的暴力画面，这些定居者通常受到该国安全部队的支持和保护。

这些女定居者声称她们不会杀害巴勒斯坦人或袭击土地所有者，而只是像其他任何一群妇女一样做饭和晾衣服。

但他们的最终目标相似——建立所谓的“应许之地”，包括将以色列的版图扩展到被占领的西岸地区。他们在西岸的存在与暴力极端分子一样非法。他们也正在违反国际法，将巴勒斯坦的牧区土地改造成成熟的定居点。

位于拉马拉东北部的毛兹·埃斯特和奥尔·阿胡维亚前哨站，是这种系统性扩张的典型例子。

Maoz Esther 于 2006 年建立，最初是一个小型青年营地，之后多次被拆除重建，最终发展成为现在被称为“女孩山”的地方。到 2025 年，这里居住着 17 个家庭和 50 多名儿童，规模超过了邻近的占地 950 杜纳姆（235 英亩）的 Kochav HaShahar 定居点。

同样，2023年在奥夫拉定居点附近建立的奥尔阿胡维亚前哨站，体现了打造大型定居点群的宏伟愿景。其最终目标是将20多个前哨站与奥夫拉连接起来，形成一个未来能够容纳数千个家庭的综合网络。

虽然以色列警方偶尔会在镜头前拆除这些哨所，但人权活动人士称这些行动是一场有组织的作秀。

据以色列人权组织B'Tselem称，大多数前哨站都得到国家和军队的直接支持，警察一撤离，妇女们就立即重建房屋。在后勤方面，这些前哨站由以色列民政管理局提供水、电、私人道路网络和军事保护。

此外，政府还向山顶青年组织成员提供近 4000 万美元的食品和服装补贴。

该运动享有前所未有的立法和政治庇护。2025年初，以色列议会通过了“以色列土地”游说团体提出的法案，允许犹太人在西岸自由购买土地，并确保即使未来达成政治协议，这些土地收购也能得到保护。

像极右翼部长贝扎莱尔·斯莫特里奇和伊塔马尔·本-格维尔这样的政客积极支持这些前哨站，而国防部长以色列·卡茨最近向他的党内吹嘘道：“我主动取消了所有针对西岸定居者的行政命令。”

这种意识形态扩张造成的人员伤亡是毁灭性的。2025年1月至2026年5月期间，联合国记录了至少2806起定居者袭击事件，平均每天发生5起。

希尔托普青年组织的重要领导人伊莱沙·耶雷德最近在一次播客节目中总结了他们的暴力策略，他说：“我们为挑起摩擦感到非常自豪；甚至军队也陷入了摩擦之中。”

仅在 2026 年，系统性的定居者屠杀就导致近 2000 名巴勒斯坦人流离失所，促使联合国和巴勒斯坦外交部重申，这些无情的土地掠夺从根本上破坏了建立一个可行的巴勒斯坦国的可能性。