Days of Palestine – Naqab

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished Tuesday the Palestinian homes of the village of Al-Araqeeb in the Naqab for the 202nd consecutive time.

A systematic process that has been raging since 2000, leaving residents outdoors despite the bitter hot.

The demolition of tents and the homes of Al-Araqib residents came this morning for the sixth time in a row since the beginning of 2022.

It’s noteworthy that the Israeli occupation forces destroyed the village 14 times during the year 2021.

The IOF demolish the village on a monthly basis, but the residents rebuild it from timber and nylon bags every time, rejecting the plans of the Israeli plans that seek to displace them.

Every Sunday, the villagers demonstrate against the practices of the Israeli Yoav Unit and the police forces that storm the village and abuse its residents.

The village of Al-Araqib is inhabited by 22 families, numbering about 800 people, who live on livestock farming and desert agriculture.

In the seventies of the last century, the residents were able, according to the laws and conditions of the Israeli authorities, to prove their right to own 1250 dunams out of thousands of dunams of land.

The occupation aims to displace the residents of Al-Araqib from their original lands, paving the way for its exploitation in expansionist settlement projects.

Al-Araqib is a Palestinian village located to the north of the city of Beersheba in the Al-Naqab desert (southern Palestine). It was established for the first time during Ottoman rule. It is one of 51 villages in the Negev that the occupation government does not recognize.

About 240,000 Palestinians live in the Al-Naqab desert, half of whom live in villages and gatherings, some of which have been in place for hundreds of years.