Israeli forces on Sunday destroyed the Palestinian village of Al-Araqeeb for the 15th time this year, according to local Palestinian reports.

Israeli forces raided homes and forcibly removed its residents, including women and children, and proceeded to raze residents’ homes and shelters, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The village, located in the Naqab desert, has been destroyed at least 211 times since 2010, in attempts to expel its Palestinian inhabitants.

Israeli forces have targeted the village under the pretext that it is constructed without legal authorization. However, Palestinian residents return every time it has been destroyed, in defiance of Israeli efforts to displace them from their homes.

Home to at least 22 families, Al-Araqeeb is classified as one of the Negev desert’s many “unrecognized Bedouin villages” deemed illegal by the Israeli government.

(The New Arab, PC, SOCIAL)