Shin Bet chief David Zini issued an unusual warning at the latest Cabinet meeting about military-style infrastructure in Bedouin communities in the Negev.

According to a i24News report Tuesday evening, Zini said during the meeting: “There are places in the Bedouin communities with military infrastructure that we are constantly thwarting — attempts to establish military battalions. This is a very concerning phenomenon.”

The remarks were made during a Cabinet meeting dealing with security threats from the Gaza Strip and Yehuda and Shomron, during which the Shin Bet chief also raised the issue of the Bedouin communities in the Negev.

The Regavim movement responded to Zini’s warning by saying that the situation constitutes a “governance emergency in the Negev.”

“For years, we have been warning about ‘Bedouistan’ — the developing security threat in the Negev, inareas that have become extraterritorial zones — and even more so recently, with the increase in smuggling by drones,” the organization said.

“From the phenomenon of polygamy, which brings thousands of women from Yehuda and Shomron into the Negev who are trafficked there and raise a generation hostile to the State of Israel, through the nationalist radicalization of Islamist elements infiltrating educational and welfare institutions, to the enormous quantities of weapons present in the Negev, alongside additional game-changing weapons smuggled every night across the borders into Israeli territory.

“It is astonishing that things that have been known for years are being said specifically today, on October 7. We are in a governance emergency in the Negev, and the warnings must not be ignored. A preemptive operation is needed to prevent and thwart the threats before it is too late.”

Earlier Tuesday, during the government meeting marking October 7, Minister Amichai Eliyahu warned of the possibility of Palestinian Authority forces “turning their guns” against Israel, chalila.

“What are we waiting for? For them to do what Hamas did — what they’re preparing to do?” he asked.

Deputy Minister Almog Cohen joined the warnings and also raised concerns about weapons among the Bedouin population.

Defense Minister Yisrael Katz responded: “The IDF is preparing as never before for the possibility of them turning their guns against us. If anyone dares to turn weapons against us, we will do in Yehuda and Shomron what we did in Gaza and Lebanon.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)