NAQAB, July 20, 2017 (WAFA) – Israeli authorities demolished on Thursday a home in the Bedouin Arab village of Wadi Na’am in the Naqab region, in southern Israel, under the pretext of construction without a permit, according to Arabs 48 website.

The demolished home was a shelter to an orphaned Palestinian family, it said.

The village of Wadi Na’am is one of 35 Bedouin villages in the Naqab region considered “unrecognized” by the Israeli state.

The Arab Follow-up Committee, which advocates for Arab rights in Israel, said more than 200 Arab families in the Naqab have received demolition or evacuation orders.

It set up several protest tents around the Naqab area, which will remain in place until July 27 when a regional rally is planned to protest Israeli government measures against Palestinians in the Naqab, where 240,000 Palestinians live.

According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), more than half of the Naqab Bedouins reside in unrecognized villages, which the state refuses to provide with a planning structure and place under municipal jurisdiction.

ACRI said the [Israeli] government uses a variety of measures to pressure Bedouins into relocating to government-planned urban centers that disregard their lifestyle and needs.

“Whole communities have been issued demolition orders; others are forced to continue living in unrecognized villages that are denied basic services and infrastructure, such as electricity and running water,” said the center.

M.N./M.K.