Ashkelon resident Moshe Nissimpor decided that the best way to halt rocket fire from Gaza - in light of what he terms the government's failure to do so - is some vigilante justice.
Rocket built by Moshe Nissimpor
Photo: Courtesy
Nissimpor developed a homemade 200-millimeter ballistic missile which he planned to launch from Ashkelon into the Gaza Strip.
"From this day onwards, we will push back to the stone age every place which dares shoot missiles into Israel's sovereign territory," he said Wednesday. "It is time the world understood Israelis' lives are not expendable."
"I'm afraid this is the only language the Palestinians understand, and this is the language in which we'll speak to them. I have many Gazan Palestinian friends who live as Hamas hostages. Once we bring an end to the rocket fire, Gaza's residents will also live in peace," he said.
Nissimpor arrived at the Ashkelon Municipality building with the missile painted black and lettered "to Hamas, from the residents of Ashkelon" in red, and was planning to launch it.
Ashkelon residents gathered round to cheer him on and protest the government's conduct, but at the eleventh hour, police stopped him from firing the missile and seized it.
"I wish there were more 'crazies' like me in Israel," Nissimpor said as the crowd was dispersed by the police.
Earlier Wdnesday, as the security cabinet met and emerged with a message that the government will stop the rocket attacks against Israeli communities from the Gaza Strip, three rockets struck the western Negev.
A total of 14 Kassams were fired into Israel from northern and central Gaza, on the first day in almost a week in which nobody was wounded by the attacks. Almost all the projectiles hit open areas.
The air-raid-style sirens installed in Ashkelon this week were tested for the first time - causing some to duck for cover, but proving that their whine could penetrate walls better than the calmly-pitched "Color Red" warning.
Meanwhile, the week's second humanitarian supply convoy into the Gaza Strip met with a glitch, as border crossing authorities detained one of the dozens of trucks crossing entering the Strip. A truck labeled "cooking oil" was stopped after authorities suspected that its liquid contents might instead be materials used for producing Kassam rockets.
A truck containing "building materials" was also combed, on suspicion that some of its contents could be used to build rockets.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry announced that the first shipment of Turkish humanitarian aid, including four trucks full of medicine, food and clothing, arrived in Gaza as part of Wednesday's convoy. A second Turkish shipment is expected to be sent through the Gaza crossings soon, which before this week had been closed to almost all shipments for more than a month.
Around two dozen Gazans were permitted to enter Israel to receive medical treatment.
In the morning, three rockets were fired at agricultural areas in the western Negev, and another two hit near a kibbutz south of Ashkelon.
In the evening, an estimated nine rockets were fired from northern Gaza, striking open areas near Sderot and Ashkelon. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the evening barrage.
During the relative lull in the Kassam rocket fire, the Defense Ministry positioned 120 portable bomb shelters in Sderot, the final shipment of the box-like structures to the town under current plans. The ministry also budgeted an additional NIS 300 million to improve the state of bomb shelters in Ashkelon.
Late Tuesday night, IAF aircraft hit a number of Kassam launchers that were pointed at Israel.
