Ramallah: Five Palestinians were injured on Sunday in clashes while Israeli bulldozers destroyed makeshift homes for the ninth time in a village between the towns of Rahat and Beersheba on the Negev Peninsula.
The Israeli machinery and its armed forces descended on Araqeeb and razed the houses claiming that they were built without obtaining permits.
Hundreds of people were left homeless. During the past few months, the Israelis have demolished the village eight times, but the residents rebuilt their homes and facilities once the Israeli forces left the scene.
Awad Abu Fraih, a member of Araqeeb Defence Committee, told Gulf News that the Israelis have committed another crime in the village.
He said Araqeeb was demolished by the Israeli forces for the ninth time leaving the villagers in the open during this cold and rainy weather.
The Israeli authorities do not recognise 40 villages on the Negev Peninsula inhabited by more than 100,000 people and plan to uproot them.
Abu Fraih said that all the targeted villages had been built and inhabited by the Palestinians long before the creation of Israel.
The residents of Araqeeb and other villages are determined to stay on their lands and rebuild their villages and houses once the Israeli forces leave.
