In 2024, following rising settler attacks, the European Union put Hilltop Youth as well as the related Lehava groups on its asset freeze and visa bans, declaring them to be extremist organizations.

[9][11] According to terrorism expert Ami Pedahzur, ideologically, Hilltop Youth espouse a Kahanist worldview, favouring "deportation, revenge, and annihilation of Gentiles that posed a threat to the people of Israel".

[13] Many have studied in the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva under Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh,[14] who developed the metaphor comparing Israel to a "nut" which had to be cracked in order to allow the fruit, the people, out.

[16] A recent ideological development has led to many Hilltop Youth rejecting Zionism due to Israeli concessions and the perceived Zionist inability to establish Jewish control over the entirety of the Land of Israel.

[25] Settlers have long been accused of carrying out what are called "price tag attacks", a term used for targeting Palestinian property in revenge for outposts demolished by the Israeli military, although no one as yet has actually been convicted of having been involved in such vandalism.

[14][26] Many of the Hilltop Youth feel that the mainstream settler movement has lost its way, opting for cheap housing close to major cities, built by local Arab labor, with tall fences and no space between their homes.

[30] As a result, the hilltop youth experienced "loss of fear of administrative detention due to the conditions they get in prison and the money given to them upon their release by MKs, together with legitimization and praise".

After violating his house arrest terms, he was held in jail until the end of his trial, in which he was convicted following a plea-bargain for conspiring to gather military intelligence and sentenced to time served, approximately 6 months.

[36] In 2024, responding to rising Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, the European Union put Hilltop Youth as well as related Lehava groups on its asset freeze and visa bans, declaring them to be extremist organizations.