Israel demolishes properties of Palestinian who saved 30 Israelis on 7 October
Israeli authorities have demolished properties belonging to a Palestinian citizen of Israel, who rescued 30 Israelis from the Nova music festival during the 7 October 2023 attacks.
The Israeli news site Local Call reported on Monday that Israeli authorities razed a warehouse and chicken coop belonging to Yousef Zyadna, while his nephew's home was demolished.
Zyadna, a minibus driver, drove to the site of the Nova music festival in the early hours of the attacks to help people escape.
He was subsequently awarded for his heroism at an event at Israel's Friends of Zion museum.
Local Call reported that dozens of bulldozers arrived in the Zyadna neighbourhood near the southern city of Rahat, where they demolished homes and other structures in the Bedouin community.
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It added that 65 demolition orders are currently in place against homes in the neighbourhood.
Zyadna told Local Call that he did not regret helping the Israelis despite the demolition of properties belonging to his family, adding "these are our values. This is how we were raised."
Four members of the Zyadna family were also taken captive during the October 2023 attacks.
Bilal and Aisha were released in November 2023, while Hamza and Yousef died in captivity. Their bodies were returned to Israel in January 2025.
This story is insane. The Palestinian Bedouin Israeli Yusef Alziadna is widely regarded as a hero in Israel after having saved 30 lives on Oct. 7. Today, in recognition of his bravery, Israeli security forces arrived at his home with bulldozers & demolished the foundations of his family's home. They also demolished his storage shed & a chicken coop & damaged the area used by his brother’s flock of sheep. It's not just his own property -- it's the whole neighborhood Israel wants to destroy. 65 demolition orders hang over the homes in the neighborhood. Just a week ago, his nephew got married; shortly before the wedding, he, too, had received a demolition order for his home. When the bulldozers arrived, it turned out that the newlywed had already demolished his own home to avoid a forced demolition. There is 1 and only 1 reason Israel is trying to wipe Yusef's neighborhood off the map: Yusef and his family have P-positive DNA. They are Palestinian Arab Bedouin, not Jewish. But Israel is a state for people with J-positive DNA. Jews. That means Israel will do whatever it can to push Yusef, his family and community off their land, because they have the wrong DNA. Rahat itself was constructed decades ago to force Bedouins off their ancestral lands in the Naqb, into settled communities where they would have no access to land where they could tend to their flocks of goat, sheep, animals, etc. Today, Yosef was scheduled to give an interview on Reshet Bet and recount once again how he saved... ...many on October 7th. He cancelled the interview. Instead of coming to the studio, he invites people to come to him and see what the bulldozers did in his neighborhood today. https://t.co/k2Pvfw4Gud
— Zachary Foster (@_ZachFoster) October 6, 2026
Zyadna said that he has documents dating back to the Ottoman period that he believes prove his family lived in the area before the establishment of Israel.
"I will not leave my land," he told Local Call.
He also said that he has received mental health treatment since 7 October but that the state has not provided financial support for his treatment.
'Moral and ethical disgrace'
Naama Lazimi, a Knesset member from the opposition Democrats party, described Zyadna as "an Israeli hero and a symbol of coexistence".
She called Monday's demolition "a moral and ethical disgrace".
"The shared fate of 7 October cannot remain only in ceremonies and speeches," Lazimi said. "It must also be expressed in policy, in recognition of heroism, and in the state’s responsibility toward all of its citizens."
The demolitions are part of a wider Israeli campaign against what authorities describe as illegal construction in Bedouin communities in the Negev, known as the Naqab in Arabic.
Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has made demolishing structures in the Negev a central part of his policy, describing the campaign as an effort to "restore governance" in the region.
The Bedouin community in the Negev numbers about 320,000 people and makes up more than a third of the region’s population. The community is among the poorest and most marginalised in Israel.
On Tuesday, Ben Gvir celebrated the demolition of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
"The bulldozers of governance never rest for a moment," he wrote on X.
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