Family of Bedouin girl wounded in Iranian attack: ‘We have no shelter or anything to take refuge in’

Mohamed al Hasuni looks at the hole caused by the chunk of projectile as it passed through the metal roof and hit the floor of his house. He opens his hands about 20 centimeters to gauge the size, which coincides with the size of the gaping hole in the roof. The impact seriously injured his daughter Amina, seven, who is now in a hospital fighting for her life. “When we picked her up, she had blood on her head,” explains the 49-year-old father, while flicking the right side of his ear upwards. Amina was the only serious victim of the attack launched by Iran in the early hours of Sunday morning against Israel. Israel claimed to have intercepted, with the help of its allies, 99% of the more than 300 drones and missiles launched by Tehran.

The Al Hasuni family lives in Alfurah, a Bedouin village in the Negev desert, in southeastern Israel, where some 12,000 residents are scattered across different settlements. Israel refuses to recognize the settlements as legal and they have no right to housing or infrastructure. There are, in total, 36 settlements inhabited by some 150,000 people for whom the authorities, unlike the rest of Israeli citizens, do not provide shelters or alarm systems for attacks like the one that took place over the weekend. “We either take shelter in our homes or in our cars,” Mohamed says.

The almost permanent threat of demolition faced by these families coexists today with the enormous concern for the injured girl. Mohamed displays the paperwork ordering the demolition of the fence around his house and several precarious constructions surrounding the building where his daughter was wounded. It is dated March 25, like the one received by many Bedouins who are being pressured by the Israeli authorities to leave their villages. Mohamed affirms that the authorities have warned him if he does not obey the demolition order on his own initiative, they will demolish his damaged house as well. This Monday, despite the attack at the weekend, houses continued to be demolished in the surrounding area.

Amid this work a bulldozer hired by the authorities, escorted by several white SUVs, leaves the Gaboa family’s plot after carrying out a demolition, a few miles from where the Al Hasunis live. Halil Gaboa, 63, says they asked for a week’s grace because the demolition order came during the holy month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that concludes the month. On Sunday, they themselves began to dismantle the construction considered illegal by the authorities, but that did not prevent the arrival of the demolition workers on Monday, accompanied by the police. Now, the Gaboa family has to bear the cost of the work, explains Halil. The rules dictate that if the recipient of the order refuses to carry it out, they must pay for the Israeli authorities to pull the building down.

Institutional neglect means that this Bedouin population is 2,200 times more likely to die than other citizens in rocket attacks, according to an estimate made last November by the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages (RCUV). Although without causing deaths or major damage, Iran’s offensive, unprecedented and carried out in response to the Israeli bombing of its consulate in Damascus at the beginning of the month, has opened new questions and fears about the possibility of the current war escalating.

It was around 1:45 a.m. on Sunday when sirens sounded throughout Israel. Mohamed recounts that in the solitude of the desert, they heard air raid warnings from the city of Arad, several miles away. “We started to see fire in the sky and then something fell on the house,” he says, sitting on the dirt and stone floor of one of the sheds that doubles as a living room. Next to him is Salah, his cousin, a 31-year-old father of six: “All the children panicked. They were crying, they didn’t know where to hide as they ran into the bush.”

“Most of the villagers stayed away from the village for more than 12 hours, until Sunday afternoon,” adds Salah. “We have no shelter or anything to take refuge in,” says Halil, 71, Mohamed’s uncle. He believes that with better-built houses, Amina would not have been injured. Everyone is calling for more protection from the authorities, especially for children and women, none of whom are seen during the journalist’s visit. “This is a place that has always been at war. This year, and it will be the same next year too,” Halil says, insisting on the need for shelters.

A swarm of children mill around the door of the building damaged during the Iranian attack. Vertical midday light penetrates the gap left by the rocket and reflects off a white wall, brightening the room. On the floor, in the place where Amina slept, are the metallic remains of the projectile, which ended up buried several centimeters and broke one of the floor tiles. The family does not know if the shrapnel corresponds to one of the devices launched by Iran, or to the remains of the Israeli anti-aircraft batteries deployed to intercept them. On a promontory near the settlement, one of these batteries points to the sky, guarded by several soldiers.

Amina’s brother Naser, nine, was one of the five minors who were also in the house. When they all ran out in panic, Naser fell and was injured on his right side (the child shows his wound). Outside the house roam camels, goats, sheep, donkeys, and chickens, which help the family’s income.

Mohamed al Hasuni is the father of 10 sons and four daughters with his two wives. One of the boys immediately took Amina by car to a health center. On the way, he came across an ambulance, which took the girl to the Soroka Medical Center in the city of Beersheba, some 37 miles (60 kilometers) from Alfurah.

After the attack — Mohamed estimates 20 minutes to half an hour — police and military arrived and removed the remains of the shell. Mohamed says he has received many calls, but no direct visit from the authorities. Nati Yeffet, a member of the RCUV, notes that what happens to Bedouins is not properly covered by the local media. In fact, this organization and others working with them claim that Bedouins are treated as second-class citizens.

Since its creation as a state in 1948, Israel has been trying to wipe out much of the traditional life of these desert dwellers, the RCUV denounces. “This is a mining area that they consider strategic and want to exploit,” says Yeffet. Among the rubble of the recently destroyed house, several children recover objects that could be useful to them, such as a brush and a dustpan. Despite the demolition of their home, the Gaboas have no intention of leaving the desert where their Bedouin ancestors lived long before the state of Israel came into being.

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