From a lookout point, Israel Police Commissioner Danny Levy, Shin Bet head David Zini and deputy IDF chief Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai briefed Netanyahu on efforts to combat weapons possession and arms smuggling in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe criminal threat and the security threat blend into one. There are tens of thousands of weapons [in the region], drones crossing borders and other threats,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n
He vowed to \u201creturn the Negev to the State of Israel,\u201d by advancing \u201csettlement on a scale we have never known, including regularization for Bedouin residents,\u201d referring to the settlement of land claims in southern Arab townships.<\/p>\n
\t The government in recent months has begun treating gunrunning as not just a criminal matter but a national security threat.<\/p>\n In December, Katz issued an administrative detention order for a Bedouin from Bir Hadaj suspected of arms smuggling. It was a rare instance in which the controversial policy was leveled against someone suspected of committing criminal, rather than security-related, offenses.<\/p>\n Speaking during the tour, Katz said that \u201cstrengthening settlement in the Negev strengthens Israel\u2019s security, strengthens sovereignty, and strengthens our hold on the land,\u201d calling it a \u201cstrategic defensive line of prime importance for the state\u2019s borders and the civilian home front.\u201d<\/p>\n The group also discussed a five-year plan to expand construction of communities on Israel\u2019s frontiers, with an emphasis on the Nitzana area on the Egyptian border, Netanyahu\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u2018State of emergency\u2019<\/p>\n As Netanyahu visited the south, President Isaac Herzog hosted Jewish and Arab mayors at his official residence in a bid to calm the unrest and promote unity between their townships.<\/p>\n He warned that Jewish-Arab relations have reached a \u201cstate of emergency\u201d in recent weeks and said residents face the challenge of \u201cliving together as children of Abraham in this land.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Tensions in the Negev reached a fever pitch after an officer shot and killed<\/a> an Arab man on his doorstep in Tarabin al-Sana, a Bedouin hamlet that has been subject to a police raid for over a week now.<\/p>\n Police claimed he posed a threat to officers and was suspected of torching cars in nearby Jewish towns as revenge for a police operation in Tarabin al-Sana. His family has denied this and insisted he was shot in the chest without provocation.<\/p>\n Addressing the lethal shooting for the first time, Herzog urged investigators in the Department of Internal Police Investigations to see through a probe of the lethal incident.<\/p>\n \u201cI certainly call for the completion of the investigation and examination of everything that happened in Tarabin. I think it\u2019s very important, so that both Bedouin and Jewish citizens know the truth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Herzog also exhorted Jewish and Arab politicians to convey a message to residents that \u201cwe want to continue to live together and start to change direction.\u201d<\/p>\n The meeting marked the first time in which Jewish and Arab leaders from the south were brought together publicly in recent months.<\/p>\n In November, Bedouin politicians lamented that they were excluded from an emergency meeting on spiraling violence in the region, in which Beersheba Mayor Ruvik Danilovich warned that \u201cthe next October 7 is at the doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n This angered Bedouin leaders, who noted that their community was also hit hard by the October 7, 2023, attack and came to the aid of the towns under attack by Hamas-led terrorists who burst forth across the Gaza border that morning.<\/p>\n Speaking to Herzog, Rahat Mayor Talal Alkernawi said that while he and his constituency \u201caren\u2019t against the Israel Police\u201d and \u201cwant the police to be strong, with means, tools and data in order to fight crime,\u201d they firmly reject the approach taken under Ben Gvir.<\/p>\n \t He referenced the concrete blocks placed at the entrances to several Bedouin townships, hampering residents\u2019 freedom of movement since mid-November, when police launched their operation in the south.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t do collective punishment, you can\u2019t put in a community \u2014 whether in Lakiya, Segev Shalom, Tarabin al-Sana \u2014 concrete blocks,\u201d Alkernawi said. \u201cConcrete blocks are a symbol of occupation, but I am not in an occupied town, I am an Israeli citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tNational Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks to police forces at the entrance to Tarabin al-Sana, a Bedouin town in the Negev, during a days-long raid in the village on December 30, 2025. (Office of Itamar Ben Gvir)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/herzog.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tDimona Mayor Benny Biton speaks at an emergency meeting alongside (left to right) Beersheba Mayor Ruvik Danilovich, President Isaac Herzog, First Lady Michal Herzog and Rahat Mayor Talal Alkernawi in the President\u2019s Residence in Jerusalem on January 7, 2026. (Amos Ben Gershom\/GPO)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DSC09490.jpg\")
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\n\t\tNational Guard fighters and other Border Police forces stand at the entrance to the Bedouin town of Tarabin al-Sana, which has been closed off with cinderblocks, on December 31, 2025. (Charlie Summers\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n
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