 Prior to the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence, an estimated 65,000–90,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev desert.According to "Encyclopedia Judaica", 15,000 Bedouin remained in the Negev after 1948; other sources put the number as low as 11,000.Another source states that in 1999 110,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev, 50,000 in the Galilee and 10,000 in the central region of Israel.