A makeshift pistol built in 1948 by 16-year-old Uzi Aharoni during Israel's War of Independence has been rediscovered in storage at the HaEmek Museum and will soon go on public display. The weapon was found after decades in storage when staff accessed the warehouse during Operation Roaring Lion.

Aharoni constructed the improvised firearm in the blacksmith shop of Kibbutz Gvat amid severe weapons shortages and ongoing attacks on the settlement. Using rejected parts from underground mine production and a tube originally intended as a mole trap, he assembled a small, concealable pistol that he carried throughout the war.

According to his brother Yoav, Aharoni was the only boy in the Jezreel Valley who consistently went armed during that period. Donated to the museum in the late 1970s along with a handwritten letter detailing its creation, the pistol will now be exhibited to the public for the first time at a special Independence Day event in Kibbutz Yifat in the Galilee.