European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said: “Settlement building has nothing to do with self-defense and will not make Israel safer.”

Borrell pointed out that “Israel’s allocation of new funds to build more illegal settlements during the war is horrific.”

According to Israeli Channel 12, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich seeks to increase the budget of the Ministry of Settlement and National Missions by an amount of more than 375 million shekels, including a budget allocated to encourage the migration of extremist Israelis to “mixed cities,” such as Lod, Ramle, and Acre.

It is expected that the Israeli government will hold deliberations on changes to the budget for the current year 2023, during a meeting held today, Monday, claiming that the changes come in the wake of the needs of the war on Gaza.

Smotrich's plan for changes in the current year's budget stipulates an increase of hundreds of millions of shekels in the budget of the Israeli Ministry of Education, with the aim of "strengthening Jewish identity and culture."

The budget changes plan also allocates 200 million shekels to expand the colonies in the occupied West Bank, and 35 million shekels to establish preparatory colleges for military service in the colonies, establish random colonial outposts, and budgets to prevent Palestinian construction in areas classified as “C.”