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BEERSHEBA (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces demolished four Bedouin homes in the Tel Sheba area of Beersheba on Tuesday, leaving dozens homeless.

Locals told Ma'an that the homes belonged to the al-Nabbari family.

Israeli forces escorted bulldozers to the area early Tuesday and demolished the properties on the pretext that they lacked building permits.

One of the family members, Sufian al-Nabbari, 20, was arrested after attempting to prevent the demolition.

"We will not let go of our lands. More than 60 police officers arrived in the area and demolished our homes and livestock barns," Muhammad al-Nabbari said.

"They even chopped down our olive trees. We have not seen any Arab Knesset member here during the demolition".

Head of the regional council for unrecognized Bedouin villages, Attiya al-Asam, said that the "brutality" of demolitions has increased recently in Bedouin towns.

On Sunday, Israeli authorities demolished four homes belonging to Palestinian Bedouins near the town of Hurah in the Negev Desert in Southern Israel.

Bedouins in Israel live in 45 unrecognized villages scattered primarily in the region between Beersheba and Arad. They are the remnants of the Bedouin population that lived across the Negev Desert until 1948, when 90 percent were expelled by Israel and the remainder confined to a closed reservation.

In 2013, authorities said that the homes of the 1,500 residents of the village were to be demolished because the area had been converted into a closed military zone.