The recent rise of settler violence has prompted Israeli government to immediately halt any kind of support for illegal outposts in the West Bank, local news service Ynet reported Sunday.
During a lengthy cabinet meeting focusing on the multiplying violent acts committed by extremist Jewish settlers, ministers voted to take harsher measures to handle the issue, including an immediate freeze on all direct or indirect financial support for the illegal small residing sites and their infrastructure, said the report.
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces as well as law enforcement and judicial authorities will beef up their presence in the West Bank in intensified efforts to rein in the radicals, said the report, adding that the government will continue taking actions against the construction of illegal structures.
The moves were carried out in the wake of an upsurge in settler violence, which has seen right-wing extremists attack Palestinian residents and Israeli soldiers. In the latest incident, eight policemen were lightly injured in clashes with some Jewish settlers over the weekend.
"There is a not small group of wild people who behave in a way that threatens proper law and governance, not only in the areas in which they live but in the overall atmosphere of the State of Israel. This is unacceptable and we cannot countenance it," caretaker Premier Ehud Olmert told the cabinet meeting.
Olmert said following the meeting that he will formulate a series of directives and set up a special team chaired by defence minister to enforce them in order to restore law and order among the settlers.