Agencies-Gaza post
Al-Araqib village residents persist after the 202nd time of Israeli demolition
The Israeli authorities on Tuesday destroyed the al-Araqib town in the Naqab desert in the south of Israel for the 202nd time since the year 2000 and the sixth this year, according to statements. Though every time the town is destroyed under the pretext of illegal building, its Palestinian citizens return to the land and reconstruct their houses in a clear repudiation of the Israeli try to dislodge them from the land where they lived for decades.
Israeli troops ransacked the town this morning, said the news, removed its citizens, mainly women and children, by force, and proceeded to demolish what the residents had rebuilt to shelter their families.
The obscure town of al-Araqib is home to 22 families, numbering about 800 people, living off growing livestock and farming.
In the 1970s, citizens 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 permitted to live in their village in peace.
The Naqab desert houses over 240,000 Palestinian Bedouins, most of them living in towns and communities not recognized by the Israeli authorities and therefore lack basic humanitarian services such as electricity and water networks, streets, schools, and health centers. Their citizens are under continuous threat of being forcibly removed and relocated and their houses destroyed.
