The Government on Israel approved an increase of NIS 1.5 billion in the payouts to settlers evacuated under the disengagement plan, bringing the total offical Israeli budget funding for the replacement of the illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to a massive NIS 3.5 billion (around 770 million US$).

Around 80 percent of the additional funds, some NIS 1.2 billion, will be awarded as compensation to the evacuatees form the Gaza Settlements. Of that figure, NIS 800 million will go to individual claimants, NIS 300 million will go to businesses and the remainder will be given to the military to cover costs it incurred during the pullout.

These funds will be added to the NIS 900 million already set aside as compensation for the evacuated settlers.

A Finance Ministry spokesperson said that the additional funds were necessary because of the increase in the number of compensation demands by the settlers evacuated from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank.

The head of the Israeli "Disengagement Administration", Yonatan Bassi, explained the increase Monday by saying that the government had pledged to uphold the what he called "standard of living" enjoyed by the settlers before their relocation.

The government has spent hundreds of millions of shekels buying expensive real estate, some of which even Bassi admits was unnecessary.