Yedioth Ahronoth said Arkady Gaydamak decided to finance the fortification of at least 600 homes in the town of Sderot, which has been a major target of Palestinian-launched Qassam missile attacks for the past seven years.
Gaydamak, 55, previously financed construction of 40 so called "secure rooms" in Sderot and helped evacuate hundreds of residents to other regions of the country.
But Yedioth Ahronoth cited Israeli military as saying that 1,200 houses in Sderot, as well as hundreds of other buildings, did not contain bomb shelters.
According to Israeli sources, Palestinian militants have fired since 2001 over 4,500 missiles at the town with a population of 22,000. On Wednesday, the Israeli High Court of Justice blasted the government for its failure to fortify houses in Sderot against Qassam attacks, the newspaper said.
The Israeli government recently folded its ambitious plan to build secure rooms in all Israeli communities surrounding the Gaza Strip, including Sderot, after the cost of the fortification doubled from the original $128-mln budget.
Gaydamak was born in Moscow in 1952, and emigrated to Israel at the age of 20. He made his fortune, estimated at over $8 billion, by pursuing a lucrative import-export business.
In February 2007 he announced the establishment of his own Israeli social movement, Social Justice, which became a political party in July 2007.
