Israeli forces knocked down on Monday the residential tents of the Araqeeb community in Negev area, inside the Green Line, for the 169th consecutive time.

Member of the village’s local defense committee Aziz Touri said Israeli police uprooted tents, displacing dozens of Palestinian Bedouins.

He added that the demolition took place at the same time as a hearing was being held at an Israeli court to prove land ownership.

Some 240,000 Palestinian Arabs live in the Negev desert, half of whom live in villages and residential communities, some of which have been in place for hundreds of years. Israel does not recognize their ownership of the land and refuses to provide them with basic services such as water and electricity.

Villagers insist on remaining in their village and rebuilding after every demolition process.

Like the 34 other Bedouin villages “unrecognized” by Israel, al-Araqeeb does not receive any services from the Israeli government and is constantly subjected to threats of expulsion and home demolition.

These “unrecognized” villages were established in the Negev soon after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, following the creation of the state of Israel, when an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes and made refugees.