Tel As-Sab’a is the first Bedouin town established by the Israeli authorities. The town was founded in 1968 following the finalization of a military regime in 1966, and was declared a local council by 1996. The location of Tel As-Sab’a was set in the heart of the Siyaj zone (where Bedouin communities were concentrated during the 1950s under a military regime) because it was adjacent to the area to which fragments of tribes from the Northern Negev were transferred (from Tarabin and Koderat). At the end of 2015 Tel As-Sab’a consisted of 18,700 residents.

Like other Bedouin towns, Tel As-Sab’a is ranked in the lowest cluster of socio-economic ranking of localities in Israel. The town has 11 elementary and secondary schools, 61 kindergartens and a community center. Six clinics and medical institutes operate in Tel As-Sab’a. The various services provided by the town to its residents also serve the Bedouins of nearby unrecognized villages.