Around 300 Bedouins living in Israel's Negev desert have been made homeless after police raided their village and razed their homes.

Israeli activists said 1,500 police arrived in Al-Arakib village at dawn.
They destroyed 30 to 40 makeshift homes and uprooted hundreds of olive trees belonging to the villagers, they said.

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the homes had been "illegally built" and were destroyed in line with a court ruling issued 11 years ago.

"Several hundred people were taken back to the Rahat area where they originally came from," he told the AFP news agency, referring to a nearby Bedouin town in Israel's arid south.

More than 150,000 Bedouin live in Israel, mostly in and around the Negev desert.

Around half live in villages that are not recognised by the state, and have no access to municipal services like water and electricity.

Many live in extreme poverty.