The Israeli occupation authorities on Tuesday, June 7, demolished al-Araqib village in the occupied Naqab desert for the 202nd time in the last 22 years, and the sixth time this year under the pretext of illegal construction.
Since the year 2000, Palestinian residents of al-Araqib return to their land after being demolished and rebuild their homes in a clear rejection of the Israeli attempt to dislodge them.
Israeli occupation forces raided the village this morning, evacuated its residents, mainly women and children, by force, and proceeded to demolish what the residents had rebuilt to shelter their families.
The village of al-Araqib is home to 22 families, numbering about 800 people, living off raising livestock and farming.
In the 1970s, residents were able to prove through legal means their right to own 1,250 dunums of land out of thousands of dunums in the area of al-Araqib. Yet, they have not been allowed to live in their village in peace.
The Naqab desert is home to over 240,000 Palestinian Bedouins, most of them live in villages and communities not recognized by the Israeli occupation authorities and therefore lack basic humanitarian services such as electricity and water networks, roads, schools, and health centers. Their residents are under constant threat of being forcibly displaced and their homes demolished.
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