Israel demolishes about 80 Bedouin structures in Negev

Israeli bulldozers demolished about 80 Bedouin structures in the village of Al-Dahiya in the Negev desert, leaving around 400 people without their homes, residents and a nearby mayor said.

Residents said the structures were destroyed on Monday after Israeli authorities deemed them illegal. Talal Al-Krenawi, mayor of the nearby city of Rahat, told AFP that a mosque and 80 inhabited homes were demolished, where about 400 people lived, including 250 students aged six to 18.

Muhammad Abu Wadi, 65, said residents did not know where they would sleep. Adnan Abu Wadi, a father of four, said the village received demolition orders six years ago and that a court ruled a year ago in favour of demolition.

The residents' lawyer, Eli Ben Zaken, said the demolition formed part of a wider effort by far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and diaspora minister Amichai Chikli to increase demolitions. Israeli police, which fall under Ben Gvir's ministerial responsibility, did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

Roughly 300,000 Bedouins live in Israel's Negev, about 30 percent of them in villages not officially recognised by the government. These villages lack most basic services and face demolition orders.

Adalah, an advocacy group for Arab minorities in Israel, said in March that Bedouins in the Negev were facing an “unprecedented crisis” of forced displacement, mass evictions and home demolitions. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in August that his party wanted to increase the Jewish population of the Negev and Galilee and create 40 new communities.

Residents said they would not move to a proposed alternative plot, saying it was owned by other Bedouin families or was unsuitable.