The Israeli authorities on Tuesday morning demolished all structures and tents in the Palestinian Bedouin village of Araqib in the Negev desert for the 170th consecutive time.
Sources said that the Israeli occupation police arrested the Sheikh of Araqib Sayyah al-Turi’s son Aziz following the demolition and released him hours later on tightened conditions.
Dozens of Bedouin citizens including children women and elderlies have become homeless and will suffer from the harsh weather of the desert for a while before they could have new makeshift homes again.
Araqib residents live in a constant state of fear because they expect the demolition of their village at any moment after they manage to rebuild their homes again.
Araqib is one of several Bedouin villages in the Negev desert which are “unrecognized” by Israel.
The repeated demolition of Araqib and other villages in the Negev falls in line with a systematic Israeli policy aimed at expelling the native population from the Negev and transferring them to government-zoned areas to pave the way for the construction and expansion of Jewish-only settlements.
