Dive Brief:

• When a construction crew in Israel began site work to expand a village school, they did not expect to open an underground cache of mid-20th century firearms and explosives.
• The stash was uncovered in Kibbutz Mesilot in northern Israel and had been put there by a local defense force for protection against Arab attacks, as well as for fighting British authorities before Israel was declared an independent state in 1948, officials said.
• Villagers who knew about the weapons have been dying off from old age, and they did not disclose its location to anyone outside their group, though people knew there was supposed to be some weapons somewhere.

Dive Insight:

Photos of the cache that Israeli police released to the media show rifles, water-cooled machine guns and possibly mortars. The cache also reportedly contained grenades. The guns were wrapped in wax paper before being sealed in the underground box where they were found. Police said some appeared almost new.