In the course of clashes that erupted early this morning between police forces and demonstrators in the Beduin village of Umm al-Hiran, which is located in Israel’s southern Negev region, a Beduin man rammed his vehicle into a police force that was operating at the scene, killing one officer. Police said the troops responded by opening fire at the driver, during which the attacker was killed. Police and other security forces arrived in the village to carry out a demolition order against illegally constructed homes. During the course of the operation, violent clashes erupted, with several incidents of gun battles reported between the residents of the Beduin village and police forces. Israeli Arab Knesset Members and left-wing activists were also present at the village, to demonstrate against the demolition orders, accusing the Jewish state of conducting a policy to expel the Arab residents through the demolition of their homes while rebuilding it later for Israel’s Jewish residents.
“It’s a plan to destroy the houses of the Palestinian citizens here in the Negev and to rebuild it for the Jewish, it’s an act of aggression, aggression first of all from the government, from the Israeli establishment, even before Netanyahu government, is a plan of maximum land for the Jews,” said Hanin Zoabi, Arab Israeli Knesset Member. Government officials rejected the allegations, stressing to TV7 that the houses demolition operation was in conjunction with a court order that deemed the structures illegally built. The officials added that Israel was a law-abiding state that cannot permit people to build structures anywhere they desire.