CNN MEETS SOME UNAPOLOGETIC TERROR ROCKETEERS IN GAZA

Reporter’s dangerous trip to secret rocket factory. (CNN)
First we crowded into a small room with breeze-block walls and a corrugated tin roof. This was where aluminum was melted down then poured into molds for the nozzle of the rocket, the tip and the other parts.

We then went into a room where two men — dressed in black overalls and, again, with black hoods over their heads — sat hunched over a gas burner, stirring a white powder in a large stainless steel pot. This was the rocket propellant. Ahmed would not tell me the ingredients because, in his words, “the enemy is always on the look out to stop us from getting the materials.” But he said almost all the inputs come from Israel. The only thing that’s smuggled in is the TNT for the warhead, which comes through the network of tunnels dug under the border between Gaza and Egypt.

The two men took turns stirring the white power over the fire. If they stop stirring, Ahmed said, it will explode. This group makes three kinds of rockets: The biggest is the so-called Aqsa 103 has a maximum range of 14 kilometers, or 8.5 miles, and carries 6 kilograms of TNT. With one of his comrades, Ahmed showed us packets of iron shards they pack into rocket warheads for extra lethal effect.

One of these missiles recently slammed into a school classroom in the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, a frequent target of the militants. The students were in another room at prayer at the time and no one was injured. Their teacher, for good reason, called it a miracle.

Ahmed was proud — not ashamed — that his missile had hit the school. These are not men who agonize over the morality of violence.