During 2014's Operation Protective Edge against Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, jewelry designer Inbal Duvdevani noticed a rocket that had fallen near her studio on Kibbutz Nirim and rattled her world.

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"I took a few pieces of shrapnel and kept them as souvenirs," Duvdevani says.

"Because the kibbutz is always in range of rocket fire in every round of fighting, kids would collect the pieces of shrapnel that fell, and so would my son, who collected them and added them to a box that was in the closet," she continues.

After Operation Protective Edge was over, Duvdevani visited the US to take part in an expo intended to promote business from southern Israel. She took the box of shrapnel with her to show visitors with what residents of Israel's south were forced to contend.

"When I displayed the box, someone came up to me and wanted to take a few as a souvenir, and mentioned that if I made jewelry from it, he'd be the first to buy them. When I got back to Israel, it stayed in my mind."

It took Duvdevani two more years until she dared take the box of shrapnel out of the closet and start turning its contents into jewelry.

"After all, it was a tool of war that killed and wounded people I know. But two years on, I decided that I wanted to turn the war into love, and I started crafting jewelry that combine gold and shrapnel, the same rocket that landed next to my studio. After a few tries, I designed jewelry and put them up for sale."

Duvdevani, 41, was born in the western Negev and has lived there all her life. Today, she is a resident of Moshav Sadeh Nitzan in the Eshkol Regional Council. For 25 years she has designed and sold jewelry at her studio on Kibbutz Nirim.

"It's not easy living in the western Negev. Managing an independent business there is hard," she acknowledges.

With assistance and mentorship from the Lauder Employment Center, which works to promote small businesses in Israel's periphery, Duvdevani launched a website through which she sells her creations. Her collection includes pieces made from gold, gold-filled, and silver as well as the items from mortars, which have proved popular and some of which are already sold out.

"Instead of being afraid of the material that's sent to kill us, I chose to make lemons into lemonade and design jewelry from it," she tells Israel Hayom. The designer says that responses have varied widely: "There are people who when they hear that the jewelry is made of a mortar or rocket are put off and don't want it, even if the piece appealed to them originally. On the other hand, there are people who say they have to have it and also ask me to design more for them."

Duvdevani says that during Operation Guardian of the Walls, the loaded issue returned. "People reached out and ordered presents like keychains and necklaces to give them to people who hosted them in other places in Israel. This is material sent to kill us, but I'm proving that things can be different and we can approach it from a stronger place."

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As violence raged in Jerusalem throughout the weekend, arson balloons released over the Gaza border fence toward southern Israel caused at least four fires in the western Negev on Saturday.

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The Southern District of Israel's Fire and Rescue Services reported that its personnel, along with the JNF, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and local volunteers, had been battling fires at a few locations in the Eshkol Regional Council and gotten the flames under control.

"Most of the fires were small and not dangerous. A wheat field in the Eshkol Regional Council was damaged," the Fire and Rescue Services reported.

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Saturday marked the third day straight that arson balloons flown over the border by terrorist factions in Gaza had caused fires in the western Negev.

On Friday afternoon, balloons caused eight separate fires, and on Friday evening another fire was reported near Kibbutz Sa'ad. Seven fires caused by arson balloons from Gaza were reported on Thursday.

Security officials in the western Negev say the balloon attacks are linked to the ongoing tension in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and call the attacks an attempt to "light up the area."

Meanwhile, explosives-laden balloons weren't the only things that terrorist operatives in Gaza were sending toward Israel. The IDF confirmed that a rocket was fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight between Saturday and Sunday, triggering an alert in open areas. No injuries or damage were reported. Local residents said they heard the rocket explode when it landed.

In response to the attack, IDF aircraft carried out strikes against Hamas targets in southern Gaza.

Earlier Saturday, Palestinians in Gaza rioted near the border fence, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the border and at Israeli security troops, who used crowd deployment tactics. A few Palestinians were wounded.

Hamas said that it would activate its "nighttime disruption units" – operatives who deliberately set off alerts, keeping residents of western Negev communities running to shelters during the night – as a response to the wave of violence in Jerusalem.

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What happens when tech meets environmental concerns? A hackathon-inspired event devoted to tackling the challenges of sustainability and innovation in the industrial sector. 

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This Thursday and Friday (March 18-19), Sapir Academic College in Sderot and the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council's SouthUp innovative initiative will be hosting ECO-thon, the goal of which is to bring representatives of industry, content experts, innovation fans, students, and residents of southern Israel together to discuss creative ideas to solve local and global industry issues that will be presented by participating companies. 

The idea behind ECO-thon is to help companies reduce their environmental impact while also addressing the needs of the population of the western Negev, who live under unique security and defense conditions. Some of the companies slated to take part include mattress manufacturer Poliron, Strauss, Beeri Print, and Netivei Israel – National Transport Infrastructure Company. Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot and the AHAVA cosmetics company are sponsors. 

Challenges include how to use hot water energy from processing servers; weather forecasting and predicting floods; and communications in areas not hooked up to the grid. 

Participating teams will have access to workshops that will help them develop models. 

Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Sapir Sagit Paltin-Yifrach said, "The college, which is a major anchor in the western Negev, is happy about the wonderful cooperation with all the entities involved, first and foremost the Kibbutz Industries Association and the SouthUp innovation incubator. 

"We place great importance on encouraging people to find solutions to the sustainability challenges that affect us all," Paltin-Yifrach said. 

Rafi Nevo, head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Kibbutz Industries Association and CEO of the Mashtela startup fund, said "The main importance of the ECO-thon is to form connections and technological, scientific, and business cooperation between the industries of the western Negev, which are mostly traditional; academia; the kibbutzim; and the local entrepreneur community. 

"These connections allow for original thinking, implementation of innovation, and products and technologies that will promote solutions of enormous importance to people and the environment, on a global scale," Nevo said. 

Anyone interested in watching or participating in the ECO-thon can do so through its dedicated website (Hebrew-only) here. 

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Elsewhere in Sderot, a 52-year-old woman sustained minor injuries while running for shelter.

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The Iron Dome system intercepted six other rockets in Sderot airspace, and the IDF responded to the attacks with airstrikes on Hamas targets, including a military complex that manufactured rockets and rocket launchers and a site that manufactured concrete that Hamas uses to build underground infrastructure and attack tunnels.

Early Friday, IDF aircraft struck some of the organization's underground facilities.

"The strike was a response to seven rockets that were launched at Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip tonight. Six of the rockets were intercepted by air defense soldiers," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said.

"The IDF takes any terrorist activity against Israel seriously, and is willing and ready to take any action necessary against attempts to attack Israel's citizens or its sovereignty," the IDF statement continued.

"The Hamas terrorist organization is responsible for what happens in the Gaza Strip and from it, and it will bear the ramifications of its terrorist activity against the citizens of Israel," the IDF said.

Shlomo Malka, whose home was hit by the rocket, told Israel Hayom that the rocket had wrecked his son's bedroom. At the time of the attack, his son was attending a birthday party.

"We didn't hear the Color Red alert," Malka said.

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Earlier Thursday, 42 fires were started in the western Negev by explosives-laden balloons released by terrorists in Gaza. The spokesperson for the Southern District of the Fire and Rescue Services said that firefighters, teams from the JNF and the Nature and Parks Authority, IDF soldiers, community security officers, and civilian volunteers had cooperated to extinguish a number of brush fires.

Most of the fires erupted in the Shaar Hanegev and Eshkol regional councils.

In light of the uptick in security tensions, Secretary General of the Moshavim Movement Amit Yifrach reached out to Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday to discuss the arson balloon attacks and agricultural terrorism being perpetrated against western Negev communities.

In a letter, Yifrach told Gantz that "Balloon terrorism has once again struck the residents of the western Negev. Over 200 fires have been caused by the arson balloons, seriously affecting the residents' lives and is posing a real danger to life and property."

On Thursday, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is identified with Hezbollah, reported that Qatar has expressed willingness to extend its financial grants to the Gaza Strip for another six months and promote initiatives already discussed as part of its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel.

The report said that Hamas had rejected the offer, emphasizing that it wanted to force Israel to implement all existing understandings immediately.

The Lebanese paper also said that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad had threatened a "powerful" response to Israel's warning that it might revive targeted killings of senior Hamas officials. The terrorist organizations said they would view any such killings as a "declaration of war" and retaliate by "setting Tel Aviv on fire with thousands of rockets."

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Police sappers removed the shell, and the Israeli Air Force was investigating the incident.

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Residents of these communities, which border the Gaza Strip, bear the brunt of the rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza and experience high levels of stress and tension. The circumstances of these children's upbringing compounds the challenges they face when they enlist in the IDF at age 18.

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The Eshkol Regional Council reached out to Ben-Gurion University after noticing an increasing number of new recruits experiencing significant distress at the start of their military service, which is already a stressful period.

In an attempt to understand and possibly find ways of confronting the ongoing trauma, council members reached out to Professor Limor Aharonson-Daniel and Dr. Stav Shapira of BGU's PREPARED Center for Emergency Response Research and School of Public Health. Both have done work evaluating resilience in residents of the western Negev.

Aharonson-Daniel and Shapira plan to delve into the methods these young soldiers use to cope and what resources are available to them.

Once the information is collected, Shapira and Aharonson-Daniel plan to work with the IDF and with regional councils in the Gaza border region to develop a program to boost resiliency among the youth of the western Negev.

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Two weeks ago, the Finance Committee held a fraught discussion about compensating owners of restaurants and hospitality businesses in Sderot and the western Negev. Some representatives of the business community there presented the committee with data that indicated a general collapse if they did not receive compensation for the business they lost during recent escalations of violence.

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"Everyone is fussing and pretending as if they're doing something, but actually nothing is happening, and you can see for yourself how empty my restaurant is," said Elraz Azran, 42, the owner of the Tovale café in Sderot.

"Last Friday, there were rocket barrages. I opened up on Saturday night. My workers came in, and for hours the café was empty except for one person. It's tremendous, ongoing financial damage. I'm not complaining about the residents. They're afraid to leave their homes, with good reason. And afraid for their kids. It's not only the Color Red alerts that scare them, it's also the Iron Dome interceptions," Azran said.

Yehuda Hazan, 56, who has owned Shawarma Hazan for over 20 years, discussed his current difficulties: "It's hard to run a restaurant in a situation like this. The people of Sderot like to go out to eat. But they're afraid, with good reason."

Yair Elbaz, 46, who owns a local pizzeria, is also suffering.

"I've seen my sales drop by over 50%. Even if the [Knesset] committee approves compensation, there will be more rockets tomorrow. We don't want money, we want a permanent solution, once and for all," he said.

The owner of an event venue claimed that he had lost hundreds of thousands of shekels because of cancellations.

One business owner who preferred to remain anonymous said, "There is this impression that we, the owners of restaurants and cafes and hospitality businesses, need the government to take pity on us. Not at all."

"We live in an area of war, we're attacked every day by rockets, and our living – especially our health – isn't in a good state. So it would be appropriate for the government to do one of two things: either find a solution to the problem, politically or militarily, or compensate all the business that are failing because of the rocket attacks," he said.

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The incident marked the first fire in the area to be caused by an arson balloon from Gaza after a respite of about a month from attacks of this kind.

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Last month, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi and GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi met with heads of local authorities near Gaza. During the meeting, Kochavi said that the IDF was using every tool at its disposal to put a stop to arson terrorism from the Gaza Strip. Kochavi also briefed the local authority heads on the situation in Gaza, as well as provided an overview of the terrorist organizations which are active there.

The meeting touched on common goals and discussed continued cooperation between the IDF and communities that lie to the east of Gaza.

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At the end of the meeting, Netanyahu said, "We held a cabinet meeting at the Gaza Division with the division commander and the GOC Southern Command. Our policy is clear – we want to restore calm, but at the same time, we are preparing for a large scale military operation if necessary. These were my instructions to the army."

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"At the same time, I met with heads of local authorities near Gaza and Ashkelon. I discussed what steps must be taken and they gave instructions about how we could help them. I'm sorry that a few local authority heads who always say no one listens to them got up and left when we came to listen, but we will do what is necessary for everyone," Netanyahu said.

The prime minister also touched on this week's protests against police violence toward members of the Ethiopian-Israeli community, and said the Ethiopians were "dear to us."

"I say this … as the person who heads the ministerial committee on how to address the problems in that community. We will discuss all the issues, but we will also discuss something that is unacceptable – we will not accept or suffer roads being blocked and violence, including Molotov cocktails, being perpetrated against our [security] forces – or cars being set on fire or any other property being burned. We are a law-abiding nation and we demand that everyone obey the law," Netanyahu said.

The prime minister said that discussions were being held about police brutality and ways of changing how Ethiopian-Israelis are treated. However, he said, one thing was certain – that blocking roads and violence were not the way to address the issue.

After the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon met with leaders of Gaza-adjacent communities. Gadi Yarkoni, head of the Eshkol Regional Council, and Ofir Libstein, head of the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, declined to attend the meeting.

"We were surprised to discover that 20 heads of local authorities from southern Israel had been invited to meet with the prime minister, and that he had no intention of holding a meeting devoted to the Gaza periphery, as we expected and as should have been held at a time like this, and which we asked for," Yarkoni and Libstein said.

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In the past few months, fires caused by explosives floated over the border fence have consumed some 450 (111 acres) of fields and forested land.

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Wednesday saw fires in the Shaar Hanegev and Eshkol regions, including ones that broke out near a sports center in the Eshkol Regional Council and in the yard of a home in Eshkol. No injuries were reported and no damage was caused. Wildfires erupted in the Be'eri forest and the Besor Nature Reserve, among other locations.

The number of fires on Wednesday marks a sharp uptick from the beginning of the week. On Monday, arson balloons caused eight separate fires in the space of an hour.

The security coordinator for one of the afflicted communities in the western Negev said Monday that ongoing security work was being "pushed aside because the balloon terrorism has become a major issue in the day-to-day lives of the residents of [these] communities. The ones who pay the heaviest price are the farmers, who see months of labor go up in flames in moments. Massive damage is also being caused to the fields [themselves] and the crops, as well as to agricultural equipment," he said.

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