On the beginning of May 2025, the village of Al-Sirr, located in the Naqab (Negev) region, has experienced large-scale demolition operations carried out by Israeli occupation bulldozers.

Al-Sirr, also known as Qasr al-Sir (Arabic: قصر السر), (The village appears in English sources under several spellings: Al-Sirr / Al-Sir / Al-Serr / Qasr al-Sir) is a Bedouin village located in the Negev desert of southern Israel, approximately 3 kilometers west of Dimona and adjacent to Highway 25. The village covers an area of 4,776 dunams (approximately 4.776 km²) and had a population of 2,867 as of 2022.

Timelines of events

On August 18, 2025, Israeli authorities demolished homes belonging to the Abu Jadoua family and and facilities belonging to the Nasayra family in the unrecognized village of Al-Sir, on the outskirts of the Bedouin town of Shaqib al-Salam in the Naqab region. The demolitions, carried out under heavy police presence.

Critics, including Adalah and local advocacy groups, denounce the demolitions as systemic discrimination and land dispossession. They argue that “development” initiatives such as the Negev Development Plan—framed as modernization—serve primarily to clear Indigenous Bedouin from their land to make way for Jewish colonies, agritech hubs, and relocated military bases, while excluding Bedouin villages from recognition or investment.

On August 26, 2025, Israeli bulldozers demolished seven homes, under heavy police protection. The 1,500 residents, haves already seen over 60 demolitions in recent months, with more than 200 additional homes slated for destruction following a court-ordered evacuation.

On September 7-9, 2025, Residents of Al-Sirr, a village of about 1,500 people in the Negev, were forced to self-demolish 15 homes and two sheds over the past two days, with fears that Israeli authorities could carry out further demolitions affecting around 30 more homes and impose heavy fines. Some residents refuse to comply, disputing the promised compensation of 250,000 shekels for self-demolished buildings, citing its ineffective application in other villages.

The Bedouin Resettlement Authority provides no practical solutions after demolitions. In recent months, over 60 homes and agricultural facilities in Al-Sirr have already been demolished, with plans to remove more than 200 homes following a Beersheba court decision.

On September 11, 2025, Israeli police forces demolished more than 25 homes and set several others on fire. The destroyed homes belonged to the Abu Adwan, Al-Kharoumi, and Al-Dabbari families. Dozens of residents, including women, children, and the elderly, were left homeless in the open after the demolitions. Local sources reported that heavily armed Israeli police units secured bulldozers and demolition crews during the operation, which also saw the uprooting of olive trees, burning, and leveling of homes. The police forces are expected to continue large-scale demolitions, targeting dozens more inhabited homes in the area.

On September 17, 2025, early in the morning a large numbers of Israeli l forces, accompanied by heavy bulldozers, are storming Al-Sir village to carry out demolition orders against Palestinian-owned homes and shops. Israeli authorities and Police and bulldozers razed ~40 structures.Footage shows bulldozers uprooting olive trees in the village. Clashes erupted between Israeli police and Palestinian residents protesting the demolition of homes in Al-Sir village in occupied Al-Naqab. Bedouin rResidents burned down several houses in protest against the demolition orders set to be carried out by Israeli forces in the morning.

The ethnic cleansing pattern

Apartheid by infrastructure isolation

Despite being officially recognized by the Israeli government in 1999, Al-Sirr faces significant infrastructural challenges. The village lacks connection to the national electricity grid, water system, and waste removal services. Residents rely on solar panels for electricity and must pipe water from a connection point on the main water pipe. Additionally, most roads in the village remain unpaved.

Demolition pressure on the Bedouin community

In November 2023, Israeli demolition vehicles began tearing down 18 homes belonging to the Al-Walidi family in Al-Sirr. This action is part of broader policies affecting Bedouin communities in the Negev, where many villages, including Al-Sirr, face threats of demolition and displacement due to lack of formal planning and infrastructure.

Since the start of the Netanyahu government, over 5,000 homes and facilities in the Negev have been demolished. In 2024 alone, over 4,000 Bedouin structures were destroyed, part of a demolition surge of 400% linked to state plans for Jewish settlement expansion and military-industrial projects in the south. The campaign targets the displacement of residents from 38 unrecognized villages, affecting around 90,000 people, to confine them to recognized towns and pave the way for new colonial settlements.

Despite longstanding ancestral ties, these communities remain excluded from national planning schemes, leaving them without electricity, water, or infrastructure.

Geographical and political issues

The Negev (النقب in Arabic, הנגב in Hebrew) is a vast desert region located in southern Israel, covering about 60% of Israel’s territory.

It's fully under Israeli administration since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. It is considered by Israel—and widely recognized internationally—as sovereign Israeli territory (unlike the West Bank, Gaza, or East Jerusalem, which the UN considers occupied territories).The Negev is not considered a “disputed territory” in UN resolutions, but Bedouin land rights and forced relocation policies have drawn strong criticism from human rights organizations.

Population: Mostly Jewish in the cities (Beer-Sheva, Dimona, Eilat), but also home to a significant Arab Bedouin population, some of whom live in unrecognized villages facing land disputes and forced evictions.

Israeli government development and industrial projects in the area have created tensions with local Bedouin communities.

So, from the standpoint of international law, the Negev is part of Israel (not under military occupation), but there is an internal dispute over land use and Bedouin rights.

*A slow Nakbah

On March 2025, Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, fiiled a motion for the Israel’s Supreme Court challenging the forced eviction of over 500 Palestinian citizens from the Bedouin village of Ras Jrabah in the Naqab to expand the Jewish city of Dimona. They argues the displacement constitutes racial segregation and violates Israeli constitutional and international law. Residents, members of the Al-Hawashleh tribe who have lived on the land for generations, offered to be integrated into Dimona, but authorities insist on relocating them to Qasr Al-Sirr, a Bedouin-only town. Adalah and Bimkom proposed alternatives to incorporate Ras Jrabah into Dimona, but these were rejected. Critics say the refusal to consider alternatives exposes a discriminatory agenda tied to Israel’s broader policy of land appropriation and forced displacement. Adalah warned that the plan reflects the 2018 Jewish Nation-State Law, which prioritizes Jewish settlement and entrenches systemic inequality.

This occured 2 months before the village of Al-Sirr was under demolition order.