AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Zionist troops on Monday again demolished a Palestinian Bedouin village in the southern Negev region in the occupied West Bank.
The occupying regime’s troops stormed the village and brought it to the ground for the 216th time, Aziz al-Touri, a member of the Committee for the Defense of al-Araqib, told Anadolu.
Al-Touri stressed that the village residents are determined to rebuild their homes once again, as they do after every destruction by Zionist troops.
The homes in Al-Araqib, which are inhabited by 22 Palestinian families, are made of wood, plastic, and corrugated iron.
The village was first destroyed in 2010. Zionist regime authorities claim that the site where it is located falls under “state land.”
Al-Araqib residents are Arabs who were displaced in 1951 when the occupying regime claimed the area as “state land.”
Zochrot, a Tel Aviv-based NGO, said in a recent report that al-Araqib was first built during the Ottoman era and its lands were purchased by residents.
Zionist regime 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.
Zionists Seize Scores of Palestine Homes in West Bank
The development comes days as Zionist regime authorities have started plans to confiscate at least 70 Palestinian homes in the occupied southern West Bank.
Imad Hamdan, director of the Al-Khalil Construction Committee, a Palestinian government body, said on Sunday that the regime authorities plan to hand over the Palestinian homes to Zionist settlers in the Old City of the governorate of Al-Khalil.
“The Israeli raid of Nasreddine Building is the start of the implementation of the Israeli plan,” Hamdan added.
At the same time, Hamdan stressed that the Palestinians “are the genuine owners of these homes and shops.” The official reiterated that Palestinian ownership of these buildings is protected by local and international laws, which prevent forced expulsion.
More than 600,000 Zionists live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Al-Quds.
All Zionist settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.