Israeli police closed off the area in the early hours of the morning, to prevent protesters from gathering.
In the largest demolition in years, Israeli occupation forces demolished 47 homes near the village of Umm Butin in the occupied Naqab (Negev) on Wednesday.
“This is the largest home demolition operation in a single day in many years, led by racist ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Amichai Chikli, who want to ignite the Negev in order to deepen racial discrimination and forced transfer,” the Supreme Steering Committee of the Arabs of the Naqab said, according to the Middle East Monitor (MEMO).
The homes belonged to members of the Abu Asa family, the report said.
Israeli authorities are “trying to force the residents of the Abu Asa family to move to another place, under threat and intimidation, in order to extend Highway 6 to the south, but they refuse to move to the location proposed for them and are demanding to live in the agreed-upon neighborhood of Tel Al-Saba,” the Committee stressed.
“The government’s move is unprecedented in the history of the Negev,” added the Committee.
AL-JAZEERA: Occupation forces begin demolishing dozens of Palestinian homes in the Naqab (Negev).
AL-QASSAM BRIGADES: Our fighters are engaged in fierce clashes with the Israeli enemy forces penetrating east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
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— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 8, 2024
Palestinian Detained
Israeli police closed off the area in the early hours of the morning, to prevent protesters from gathering, the report said.
One person was reportedly arrested when he tried to prevent the bulldozers from destroying the homes.
In a heartbreaking video shared on the Resistance News Network, an elderly Palestinian woman is seated in a chair as she watches the bulldozers’ destruction of her home.
Israeli authorities on Wednesday also demolished homes in Farush Beit Dajan near Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
Tensions have escalated in the region since Israel launched its genocidal attack on Gaza following the resistance operation of October 7.
At least 498 Palestinians have since been killed and around 4,900 others injured by Israeli army fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.
An elderly Palestinian woman watches as israeli occupation forces demolish her home in the occupied Naqab. The occupation intends to demolish 47 homes today, the largest demolition in years. pic.twitter.com/DdelW3zClZ
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) May 8, 2024
Gaza’s Rising Death Toll
In the Gaza Strip, 34,844 Palestinians have been killed, and 78,404 wounded, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(MEMO, PC, Anadolu)
