By Abdelraouf Arna’out

JERUSALEM (AA): Israeli authorities again demolished on Thursday a Palestinian Bedouin village in the southern Negev region.

“The Israeli authorities demolished the al-Araqib village for the 184th time,” Aziz al-Touri, a member of the Committee for the Defense of al-Araqib, told Anadolu Agency.

Al-Touri said the demolition was the ninth since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The village was demolished last on Feb. 17.

Homes in Al-Araqib, which are inhabited by 22 Palestinian families, are built of wood, plastic, and corrugated iron.

Dozens of Bedouin citizens, including children, women and elderly, have become homeless and will suffer from the harsh weather of the desert for a while before they could have new makeshift homes again.

Al-Touri confirmed that the villagers intended to rebuild their destroyed dwellings and other structures.

The village was first destroyed in 2010 and every time after it was rebuilt since then. Israeli authorities claim that the site where it’s located falls under “state land.”

The Israeli Zochrot organization said in a recent report that al-Araqib village was first built during the Ottoman period and its lands purchased by residents.

Israeli authorities seek to seize control of the lands and expel its residents, with dozens of villages and Bedouin communities facing the same threat in the Negev area, according to Zochrot.

* Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara

[Archive photo: Israel demolished house in the unrecognized Bedouin village in Al-Araqeeb. By Emanuel Yellin/Public Domain/ allowed use]