Israeli War on Iran: Jewish Nationals’ Wartime Shelter, Indigenous Palestinian Citizens Left Exposed
Tonight, in the Palestinian “unrecognized villages” of the Naqab, hundreds of families are sleeping in fear, with no shelter to protect them from the missiles above.
They are taking refuge in school buildings.
Some are sleeping under the open sky.
Others, are huddled under bridges on the highway to Eilat.
This time, too, the residents of the Bedouin villages are left without protection from the Iranian attack: "We are completely exposed"
More than a year has passed since seven-year-old Amina al-Hassouni from the village of al-Faru`a was seriously injured in an Iranian attack, and the residents of the Bedouin villages are still defending themselves from missiles under bridges, water canals and abandoned buildings. "We are transparent, no one sees us as Israelis," says Adnan Abu Wadi, a resident of the village of Dahiya.
On Thursday night, as the sirens broke the silence across the country, Mohammed al-Hassouni found himself once again clutching his children and running into the darkness. Not to the safe room, not to a protected space – but to the tunnels under the main road near their home. On the way to the tunnels, in his crowded car, he counted them again and again, just to make sure everyone was there. More than a year has passed since that Iranian attack, in which his young daughter, Amina al-Hassouni, then seven, was seriously injured by shrapnel that pierced the roof of their home in the unrecognized village of al-Fur`a. She was the only one who was injured that night of all the citizens of Israel – not by chance, but because of her residential address. In the unrecognized village there is no protection, no infrastructure, and no recognition. "If there had been protection, it wouldn`t have happened," says Mohammed.
Image: Map of Israel’s transfers of Naqab Bedouin since 1948. Source: "Bedouins in the occupied Palestinian territory - UNDP report", UNDP report, Question of Palestine.
