Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

I don't remember shooting at suspects. There were not many incidents in my own platoon. There is something called deterrent fire – at a certain time soldiers climb up to the roof, with a machine gun, rifle and grenade launcher, take a house, it's always the same house in the immediate area, and target it for a blast of deterrent fire. The idea is to sow confusion, keep shifting the direction of warfare. Same with the D-9. These are fire blasts, and towards the end there was a point where a woman came from some houses that were held by the IDF, no one detected her and she came up quite close to our house. The soldier didn't shoot her although he was supposed to. She got quite close and then APCs came up to unload equipment, saw her and shot her not with the APC's machine gun but with light arms. This was the only incident in which my platoon fired at anyone.

What happened to her?
She lay there dying for some time, and after a while, she was killed. She was carrying some sack which we thought contained an explosive charge so we threw a grenade down in order to try and blow it up. It didn't. But let's say a woman walks around in army territory heading up to an APC and doesn't stop. It was really weird how calmly she walked there, with that sack.

Young or old?
Old. An old woman. She didn't react. Lights were turned on her and she just continued walking. She may have carried an explosive charge and meant to reach the window and blow herself up.

No one ended up checking inside that sack?
No. We were busy leaving. That's why we were more cautious. Because on radio you have to clarify somehow that you are coming out of the house so you say "Get ready to move to objectives so and so…" which is a code for shifting our designated area. Anyway, if someone is listening in, he knows we're leaving the houses and at this point you have to take more precautions. So you also fire a lot harder and open another outpost and that was just the moment when this woman popped up. There was nothing else we could do, you can't take risks.

Did anyone yell a warning at her?
The Arabic-speaking soldier yelled at her to stop. Later we called her the 'terrorist- ladies'-auxiliary auntie.'

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

When we spoke about what really took place in Gaza, you said it was insane or something. Why, what was it?
The amount of destruction there was incredible. You drive around those neighborhoods, and can't identify a thing. Not one stone left standing over another. You see plenty of fields, hothouses, orchards, everything devastated. Totally ruined. It's terrible. It's surreal. You see a pink room with a Barbie poster, a shell that had gone through about a meter and a half below.

Really went through?
Yes. People live in these places. There were many incidents of people, towards the third or fourth day, where you'd be informed on radio or just simply suddenly see in front of you a group of about twenty people walking south with white flags. It's so insane.

So when there's information of people with such flags, what do you do?
You're told not to open fire. If you get this information, or if there's a report of something humanitarian supposed to pass.

Ambulances passed, for instance?
No.

So what is this humanitarian thing?
Humanitarian aid, I don't know what they call it. Maybe a donkey and a cart and who knows what it's carrying. Maybe rice or something.

Were there cases that you knew of, that you were told of civilians or someone wounded, or wounded persons who had had no medical care. Did you run into such cases?
The matter with tanks is… Our range is huge, you don't really feel the enemy. So our own incidents, things that happened once or twice, were at a range of over a kilometer, or 800 meters. So you don't really feel it. I don't know, in my own company there were plenty of people who fired just for the hell of it, at houses, water tanks. They loved targeting water tanks.

But you don't do it with shells. You do it with machine guns.
Machine guns. Fire at windows too. If there's information requiring us to demolish that house.

Did you happen to escort D-9s demolishing houses, do you know what they destroyed, why, how many?
The way we worked was in secondary protective positions. After they realized we'd be inside over 72 hours, and that we couldn't stay in our positions, all of us, all of the time, these rear positions were prepared. If they didn't like the looks of some house, if it disturbed or threatened them, then it would be taken down.

But that was for operational needs.
Operational needs. I don't know, maybe half of them. Sometimes the company commander would give the D-9s something to demolish just to make them happy.

Why, were they resentful?
No, but D-9s, you know… They have a hard time. They're your gofers. They do what they're told. So they love to demolish, and when the commander sends them off, "Go take down that house," they're happy.

Were there lots of explosive charges? Booby-trapped houses, cases where you fired at a house and heard a secondary explosion? How many such cases were there?
There was once someone we detected and fired at, and then heard a secondary explosion. From a house at a window, 800 meter range. Nothing else that I know of.
Although the infantry say they had a lot of that. According to them there were plenty of booby-trapped houses. In our second advance there was some field where we'd nearly hit charges any minute, and eventually the paratrooper officer close by did hit a charge, it was hard. He and another two soldiers were wounded. The infantry who were more inside the houses felt this more than we did.

Did you see civilians?
I saw the folks who were walking south… There was this one time when two old women were right behind us with a little kid and a suitcase, all confused.

Behind you, meaning north of you, between you and the border.
Yes, behind us. They got too close to the infantry formation, and deterrent fire was opened at them. I also heard that the company commander asked the guys, 'Why didn't you shoot them?' I talked with some of the guys at the position over there. I saw the infantrymen in the rear positions.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

…Go ahead and ask soldiers how often they encountered combatants in Gaza – nothing.

When you entered the Gaza Strip there was no resistance?
Next to none at all.

What were the rules of engagement? You're carrying light arms?
Yes. First of all – wherever there are none of our forces, you're exposed to fire. Everything is a threat. There is no such thing as suspect arrest procedure. If I detect a suspect, if he is a threat to me – I shoot.

No deterrent fire? Calling out? After all, a bullet is a bullet and there's no turning it back.
No. Everyone, but everyone knew we were entering. Even those we caught knew we were there. That's why they came out with white flags, so they would not be shot.

Was there a white flag procedure?
No. I saw and heard and posters were being distributed, Israeli air force helicopters threw flyers and passed overhead with giant banners. Just think how risky it is for us to be so humanitarian.

Were guys resentful about this?
Sure. Even I was. I think it's stupid to warn them in advance. You know how many terrorists we missed this way? Lots. Lots. We know for certain that there were 250 men underneath the hospital. With certainty.

Who briefed you before you went in?
Our commander spoke with all the crews together, and the same battalion commander who was in charge of the whole force briefed us before entry. The briefing was about how the entry should take place. The goal was to keep everyone unharmed while entering. They spoke about aggressive action, they were very wary of abductions and emphasized it in a big way. I remember that my buddy and I stuck together, I even went with him to take a crap. Literally. Even going up for night watch. I went with him, and then when my turn came he stuck with me. We always were reported in what direction we were open and closed. We had it relatively easy because we knew we were open to the south.

What does that mean, open and closed?
Open and closed to fire. When you detect danger, you know whether there are IDF forces there or not.

What incriminates people to be shot? Someone approaches you and he's armed…
I'm supposed to know whether someone there is armed. If he's IDF I'll know it by his dress and weapon. You can tell. True, they sometimes wear uniforms.

I heard there were instructions not to go up to the roofs.
True.

What was the point?
In Gaza there were bursts of fire from above and as soon as you detect movement on a roof you know that it's not your own forces. That way you can take down guys who're directing others from very close up.

But if these were civilians?
The closest force goes to check out if these are civilians.

You're the 'eyes' on the ground?
Yes.

You direct the forces?
If need be, yes.

You said that you hardly encountered combatants but you did, some. Where did you detect targets if the whole neighborhood was empty?
Eventually, staying at the defense positions all day, you'd sit there with the sighting device on, searching. Suddenly you see some movement in a window. You focus and wait another half-hour, another hour or hour-and-a-half. Suddenly you see a spark, hear some booms… But you verify it's that, and direct our forces.

What kind?
Usually combat helicopters. Mortars did the job too, but helicopters were easiest.

What distance were those windows from you?
Al Bureij was the nearest neighborhood. We sat close to the sea and there were high rises.

You detect a spark in some window of a high rise building. How do you direct a mortar to hit a window?
Not necessarily for precise fire. I know it can hit a nearby window and that's good enough.

You directed tanks, too?
Yes. A tank is easier. You usually tell the tanks, "Turn 180 degrees and shell the black house." It's much easier. The point was to spare the soldiers and avoid the threat to us – obliterate it the moment it appears. I think that arrest procedure was less strict exactly for this reason, and in order to be with a 'lighter finger on the trigger' – I don't like to call it this way, but it's true. We're there and we're not willing to lose men, neither wounded nor killed. Later we can worry about humanitarianism.

There are standard procedures for lookouts, or people with cell phones?
There's no such thing. If I detect a lookout, someone holding binoculars or a cell phone – he's an accomplice. I must direct fire and take him down. Dress is important, appearance, suspect signs… If he stands on a roof holding a cell phone, that's suspect. No reason for him to stand there, he knows the IDF is in Gaza.

It's written on the flyers?
No. The flyers say they mustn't be outdoors, and should rush south, anyone from Netzarim down. The first days, it wasn't easy to get out of the house. Then the aim was to have as much movement as possible southbound. The first two days it wasn't easy to get out, then move south as far as possible.

You saw civilian movement?
No. It was empty.

Did the briefings address such events, to show consideration for civilians?
Less. The most significant point made in the briefings I attended was about soldiers' lives. There was hardly any mention of civilians. Essentially no one was supposed to be there. There was supposed to be a tiny resistance force upon entry, but there just wasn't.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

Did you have preliminary briefings regarding innocents? You enter a neighborhood and you have to be careful and not fire at our own men and not remove your helmets.
At briefings on places I entered, we were told that if we engage at close range, we should know that normally, at night the Arab is asleep in his bed and has no business outdoors at this time, so we should really be careful. We weren't told outright to shoot anything we saw moving but that was the implication. I asked, "What if I see a girl outside?" She has no business being outside. "So what do I do?" Check if she's armed – then shoot her. I should shoot anyone who's armed, but if I engage at close range then I understood from that briefing that it's better to shoot first and ask questions later.

Were there such cases?
I wasn't involved in any.

…Did the rules of engagement get very slack at any point?
There was a point in the briefings when we got there, and still before the ground offensive began, where rules of engagement were distancing fire from 500 meters on.

What's distancing fire?
That's 30 degrees up, 30 degrees to the left and open fire.

What we know as deterrent fire, signaling a person to keep away from us.
"Go away, man."

500 meters range with light arms…
No hit. There are grenade launchers and machine guns. We put up positions there along the reporting lines. There are also anti-tank guided missiles and various ambushes with mortars. At some point distancing fire was limited to one kilometer. I mean, what's limited? 700 meters from us there were already houses. If anyone moves in the house, I'm supposed to open fire to distance them? I was answered in the affirmative. This house is not supposed to be inhabited right now. They know what they're doing and I'm to open distancing fire.

And when you're inside, not outside the fence?
At that point, too, the regulations were not changed: if he's holding any kind of arms, shoot him.

At a range of 700 meters? That's the combatants' safety radius?
At that point, no. Even if you see something two kilometers away, if you can hit him, hit him. The fact that my light machine-gun doesn't hit anything two kilometers away is another story.

Were there people who opened fire without detecting anything? On their own initiative?
I think so. I think that there was such a case in the force parallel to us. There was sniper fire. The bullet scratched a soldier's helmet and they began to fire in all directions. We were 200 meters behind, and began to inquire on radio and we were told there was sniper fire against the force.

Were there cases of grenade-launcher fire or heavy machine guns there?
Yes. From the ambushes, countless cases. First of all, every morning at dawn you've got proof firing as routine standby procedure, which means 20 shots of 0.5 heavy machine guns, zeroing fire for openers, after firing ten shots you calibrate and then shoot another ten. With the grenade launcher, you get five grenades and try to 'thread' them into some house so as not to waste ammo. A house that is supposedly empty.

How can you tell?
You sit facing it all night. You also inquire at the observation command post if there's anyone there, or anything, and the lookout tells you she hasn't detected any movement for – say – the last 48 or 72 hours.

Was there destruction of property, buildings, just for kicks?
That's what we saw the airforce doing.

And you, with the guns you helped aim?
I know that on one of our lookouts with this crew we helped aim a mortar platoon. But when you fire a 120mm mortar, if you've ever had the chance to do this, then you know. He fires and then you tell him left or right according to how he hit.

Do you remember what the range is of each type of mortar - hitting, wounding, killing?
For a 120 mm mortar shell, I think at 10 meter range it kills, and at 25m it wounds.

And a 80 mm mortar?
That's 7 meters for killing and 15 for wounding, whereas a 60 mm mortar is 5 meters for killing, and 15 for wounding.

Is it a precision weapon?
Very precise. But if with light arms you've got an 80% chance of hitting with your first shot, with mortars it is much less.

What targets do you aim for with these mortars?
Houses, open spaces where all sorts of suspect movements have been detected.

Why houses, because you detect something there?
If you'd see a rocket launched out of that house, you'd fire. But again, the first shell will hit next to the house. Some 30 meters away, if it's an outstanding mortar man.
He could also happen to sneeze just as he was loading the shell, causing it to lower a bit and then he could hit a kilometer off target.

And when you directed, did the mortars achieve precision right away?
No. The shell would hit the road, the house would be filled with shrapnel, windows would be smashed, and then the next round would hit. The mortar shell already hit.

At the time, was there any mortar fire for deterrence or to make your presence felt, was there such a thing?
Areas that were a source of mortar fire were fired at just as often. Not every shot got a retaliation shelling and not every rocket brought on an aerial attack. From this neighborhood such and such a number of rockets was launched today? Let's raze the neighborhood. It seems to work this way. I don't recall anyone saying it, but we saw such and such a number of rockets fired and said this neighborhood will not be standing long, and indeed it didn't.

How long?
Six hours.

What happened?
After six hours, about 20 mortar shells fell there, and that does not leave too many buildings intact.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

…So you take positions that first day inside, and then what's the routine like?
At first we took positions, in the two-three-four first days all the tanks were in positions. The gunner and the commander rotate every two hours, at some point the driver and loader-signaler also rotate, monitoring the area near the tank. Several days later the guy from battalion *** was killed by a sniper bullet to his head, and instructions came out forbidding us to expose our heads out of the tanks. Once every few nights we'd go out on initiated actions.

What does that mean?
At first we were in our own zone, here. We took positions in this area. We cleaned this neighborhood.

What does 'cleaning neighborhoods' actually mean? How was it done in Gaza?
There are houses where infantry had not yet entered. We come along. Fire a shell into a house that appears in the alerts, and enter.

You knock a shell only into that specific house?
Depending on the instructions we receive. Once we fired twelve shells at a house. Someone was reported to be shooting automatic fire there at the infantry guys. So first it was really in the area we left behind, and then slowly we entered here, actually going into Al Atatra a lot. The next nights, towards the end of the first week. The following Saturday night we already went into Al Atatra, detected three terrorists, killed them. Then, getting out of there we were with paratroopers, they came in from here. We were on this track here with some two-three tanks. We cleared the area, shooting at whatever the infantry identified for us, we also detected some Hamas troops there, probably. Armed. Killed three of them. The company commander's tank killed another two. Coming out, our tank closed behind and we were hit from the east by three RPGs. Then you put up a smoke screen and fire a shell as well.

There was a lot of engagement, relatively.
No, this was the most severe we had… Our tank killed ten people, I think… I can say with certainty that seven of them were armed. There was this thing that the guys really liked, with the lookouts. You work with infantrymen, they detect a lookout about two kilometers from you, and you fire a shell.

What's a lookout?
I don't know the exact definition, someone who gives the coordinates to their mortars or snipers, whatever.

He's two kilometers away, how do you know he's a lookout?
I have, you know, this thermal sighting device, and it picks up weapons and stuff. But who knows, it could be a camera, or binoculars, it could be a cup of coffee, you can't tell.

So there were many cases where infantry told you, go for this and that house?
At the second positions. This was our first advance, then there was another. It was Sunday night, and we did the third phase of the operation. So we took up positions over there, really on top of Shatti. You see it from one and a half kilometers away. They have these sky-scrapers there, there were lots of detections. We kept working with snipers, infantry 'straw widows,' where they identify targets for you and you fire shells.

Into Shatti?
Yes, I think this was already the northern part of Gaza City. Their residences.

So in fact infantry tells you, "That building over there, lookout on the … floor."
Seventh window from the top, right, it's there. Watch out, and boom.

So you identify the lookout or the window?
The window. You shoot even if it's not identified. Let's put it this way. If the infantry identify, chances are you will too.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

The night the infantry went in we maneuvered in ***. We had to get to that base earlier, before dark – about half an hour to an hour earlier. We were at the rendezvous in ***, assembled in one of the assembly halls and the battalion commander held a speech for the whole battalion. He said it was not going to be simple. He defined the operation goals: 2000 dead terrorists, not just stopping the missiles launched at (Israeli) communities around the Gaza Strip. He claimed this would bring the Hamas down to its knees. This number would be a success for the army. As for rules of engagement, the army's working assumption was that the whole area would be devoid of civilians. As soon as the army would go in, from the north, since these are all open farming spaces until you get to Al Atatra, open spaces, there would no longer be people there, so as far as we were concerned anyone there is suspect and the working assumption was that no civilians would still be around. They would escape southbound into Gaza City. Anyone there, as far as the army was concerned, was to be killed.

Shoot to kill?
These words were not used, more like military expressions such as 'take him down.'
No one said 'kill innocents.' But the instruction was that for the army, anyone there is suspect and should be taken down.

Was there any mention of innocents? Do you recall such discourse?
Don't catch me at my word, but it was obvious, the battalion commander made it very clear that obviously if someone's innocent, they're not to be touched. Clearly the objective was to get terrorists, but I think that mainly panic was the rule of the game. Everyone was certain we were going to face massive fire as soon as we go into the Strip. The issue of civilians became irrelevant as soon as you'd enter combat – the rules change. You shoot. It's war. In war no questions are asked. In war those anti-tank missiles are blowing up people all around you – that's the situation that was anticipated there, and that's what defined the rules of engagement. In this story, civilians were less relevant.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

The battalion commander said there would be lots and lots of terrorists and we should really watch out but don't worry, everyone will have taken plenty of people down. At the briefing, I think it was the day we were about to go on to another mission, he was talking about our going into Gaza, and there will be plenty of terrorists for everyone.
Everyone was disappointed about not engaging anyone. You go crazy and are dying for something to happen already. Some soldiers from Sderot and the southern Israeli localities also want to take revenge (for the rocket shelling on their hometown) on terrorists. So the company commander said, "Don't worry, once we go in you'll have no space left on your rifle butt, you'll have to mark your X-s on your shirt sleeves…" When the battalion commander spoke, his personal message was that he was not willing for any of us to get hurt or risk himself because of suspects, and if there's need – we take down anyone. He would do everything in his power so that none of the soldiers would get hurt. This was the general attitude in the army: Go in with insane fire power because this is our only advantage over them.

And was there really such serious fire power?
There were rockets, Lau, whole containers of Negev machine-gun ammo flying around there, and I'm still talking to you just about the infantry, let alone combat helicopters and tanks and all that.

Where did all of this fly around?
Suspect places. There were plenty of launchers. You know you're going to enter a house and usually pretty sure it's either empty, or just terrorists inside. So you launch at all the windows, the walls, here and there a Matador. Tanks take down houses if they're not sure about them. One night they saw a terrorist and he disappeared so they decided he'd gone into a tunnel, so they brought a D-9 and razed the whole orchard.
Okay, I realize this is operational consideration and what can you do, even if it hurts to see it. No one spared ammunition or weapons.

…What about the tank taking down a house?
Sometimes you know the house is empty. You know as far as you can know. Now if the house disrupts your defense line, you take it down with a tank or a bulldozer. We took an eight-story house and the instruction was not to enter any doorway because it would be booby-trapped. That's what we have the Matador for, to take down a wall and enter through there. But the Matador proved itself somewhat less effective, so a tank shelled out a hole in the wall and that's how we got in.

What is a Matador?
It's a missile for urban warfare. It's very effective. But when we went in with it we didn't really use it so much. There were places where we fired at a house and then discovered there were people inside.

…Was there a notion of deterrent fire, show of presence?
Sure. Every other day we'd initiate a blast of fire. Not towards people. Just at windows which we'd observe for a while and know that the house is empty. No one would stay in houses close to the ones the IDF was staying in. They could live further away.

At what level were the fire blasts? Light arms? Tanks?
As for fire power, it was light arms and Negev machine-guns. Tanks fire only under instructions. There were cases where tanks were under the command of the company. There was also a case where a helicopter arrived and the company commander told him what to take down.

What happened there?
As we began the offensive, there was a house there close to the one we occupied, so we took it down. The grounds for this was operational, it was a house that had strategic advantage over the one we were sitting in. We saw no one there and there were no weapons inside but we took it down because it controlled our own position.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

In routine work there are outposts, windows, observation posts and stairs – you watch out and rotate, and if, say, you know that you have an incursion at night, you might go for twelve hours or more, but twelve hours was the average time of an incursion: you go out, take the house, spend two-three inside, then go back to the same house or to another one. You stand in your post, in the evening, you realize that at midnight you're already going out, you see the fighter planes bomb your targets, you walk, lay right next to the tanks that are shelling the houses which you will be entering, then you go into urban fighting, with live gunfire. If anyone was there before, there's no chance he is still there. I did not see one single Arab the whole time we were there, that whole week. You do see trenches in the garden with blankets or small gas burners. Whether they dug the trenches because they waited for you or because that's safer during the shelling. You see there were people there until recently. Inside the houses, as we arrived, we entered through a hole broken in the wall by a tank shell. You try to fire a RPG or Lau missile. But the tank is the one eventually making that hole. You're also told to wreck the floor tiles to check for tunnels. Television sets, closets – you don't know what's waiting there. Many explosive charges were found, they also blew up, no one was hurt. Tank Corps or Corps of Engineers units blew them up. Usually they did not explode because most of the ones we found were wired and had to be detonated, but whoever was supposed to detonate them had run off. It was live, however, ready…

You talk about tanks firing while moving. Was there massive fire?
Yes, shelling, machine guns on tanks, ours too. Before you enter a house, you shoot…I can't deny there's this aspect of soldiers wanting to let go, dying to launch the Lau missile they're shouldering, or that their commander wants this. Yes. I can't quote anyone, but it was in the air. Personally I think it's there, I'd be lying if I said it was at any price. Still where I was, in this respect, the tone was not over-zealous. I think some forces were more zealous than ours, perhaps the regulars. But among reservists you feel people want to get done with it as quickly as possible and get back home. It was this way in guard duty shifts as well. The commanders too, very much so, in fact. Even if the soldier wanted to shoot, he didn't. But when he had a chance, then he did. Professionally he didn't really need to shoot after the tank had wrecked the house, but that's my own personal feeling. We did fire a Lau missile once. So that's more or less what we did there for a week. Physically the houses were ruined.
In one house we entered I saw guys had defecated in drawers. There were drawings and graffiti on the walls. I don't even remember what. I remember a filthy drawing in a children's nursery. There were Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse stickers there, and someone had drawn a huge dick on Minnie Mouse. I really felt ashamed at that, and so do guys who were with me. It was funny because it was drawn really well, but you feel filthy. Even to tell about it.

Where was this?
In Beit Lahiya, a house where we had replaced regular soldiers. We saw such things in two houses. In one there were few drawings on the walls, some of them even made with lipstick, and the closets were all trashed. It sounds retarded. You come out of a wrecked house and still we cleaned up after ourselves. We had lots of food left which we left for them (the family). We piled up all their mattresses. In Operation 'Defensive Shield' I was platoon sergeant. People slept on the floor, we locked up the living room in another room and slept on the floor. In Gaza it was different. We used people's mattresses and blankets, but we didn't sleep in their beds. We took down the mattresses, there were plenty of mattresses in each house, and slept on them. We didn't use their water. We didn't have to. That's it, I think. That's more or less what is was like.

Is there anything beside the shit in the drawers that seemed 'uncalled for' to you?
No, you can say one didn't have to smash a television set or shoot a closet through, but saying that would be putting on airs. I didn't go into a house and kick a television set and I didn't see any of my reservists do that. On the other hand, you go into a house and turn it all inside out. You see places with explosive charges and there's a lot of tension, you come knowing that half your guys are going to get killed, there was always this talk about how dangerous Gaza is – that very much fires things up.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

Our objective was to split the Gaza Strip, fragment it. Netzarim is the mid-point and our objective was to split the Strip from the terminal. We open the area, that's our mission. We reach the first house and even at a distance, simply because that's the instruction, we shoot because it is an area that no one was supposed to be in. Flyers were distributed two days earlier and they were informed we were coming. From a distance the house is taken down and there is lots of gunfire. A D-9 bulldozer makes the rounds to verify that the house is not booby-trapped. Suddenly the D-9 jumps in the air and the entire ground floor collapses as well as part of the second floor.

Did the bulldozer hit an explosive charge?
Yes, nothing happened to it. We moved to an alternate site and again, fired like crazy.

What did you fire with?
Heavy machine guns we had on an APC, launchers.

Your light arms?
Yes. There wasn't too much equipment to demolish the house for we had to stay in it. The idea is that if there is anyone in the house who would inform of our coming, he would be taken down. We hold our fire and approach the house entrance. We have some fellows from a special unit of the Corps of Engineers who would blast the door open. Suddenly we see an old man, about 60-70 years old. He comes out with a white kerchief and says in Arabic, "Don't shoot, don't shoot". About 30 more people follow the old man, all of them in one piece, no one wounded or hit.

At what range did you target the house?
30 meters.

And they came out of the house?
Yes. And no one was hurt. Amazing. We were in shock, too. Especially after entering the house and seeing what went on inside. No one was hurt. About thirty people come out of there, including children, women and elderly. They get inspected just like in the West Bank, women hold their garments tight against their bodies, men take off shirt and pants, turn around, and they're checked to make sure they're not carrying anything.

You separate them?
Yes. Women and men. You process them one by one. You strip and inspect them one by one. It took place outside the house. According to the briefing we had, if we encountered such civilians, we were to chase them away to the south. Remembering we're splitting the Strip and to the south of us there are no forces, and indeed we're exposed to fire from the south, but if there are civilians, we should chase them away to the south. There were three families, so the head of each family, and only he entered their home for five minutes, took whatever he needed and they had to proceed south.

On foot?
Yes. They have no vehicles…

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

In general, we had quick combat procedure. Interestingly, 24 hours before the operation began, a general briefing was held about how long we were going in for. The battalion commander said he estimates about 3-4 weeks. You couldn't know for sure. This battalion commander is a good speaker, knows how to motivate us. One of the things that stood out was a subjective sense, something very permissive about the whole thing. He said we were going to exercise insane fire power with artillery and air force. We were given the feeling that we were not just being sent out there, but with enormous security and cover. He did restrain it and say, "It's not that you're out to carry out a massacre, but…" – this was the restraint to everything he had said before, and in between his own jokes which made me laugh, too. Like, "We have an Arabic-speaking grenade launcher, and a heavy machine-gun that speaks Arabic." This was the spirit of things.

Was anything said about rules of engagement?
My impression about rules of engagement was that, at least at our level, they were not clear. There were no clear red lines. In urban areas it's very much at the commanders' own discretion. As for the fire-power actually used, the feeling was of war against a regular army. On the one hand, we were told to enter every house under live fire. A grenade or two, shooting, and only then we enter. Things were said that in a way made us confident that our own lives were top priority.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

When we got there, the main demolitions were in warfare, "pressure cookers." From the point we got there, infrastructure work began. D-9s were brought in and they worked nonstop to raze orchards and take down houses suspected of containing tunnels. Occasionally there was sniper fire inside the refugee camps and there were attempts to detect their source, and at times we directed combat helicopters and tank fire at the house that was supposedly the source of fire. You have to be extremely professional to detect the source of fire and direct exactly towards it. The range was over a kilometer in a very crowded area.

Detecting sniper fire over a kilometer away inside a refugee camp is nearly impossible.
Tank fire was directed in response.

 
Tanks firing heavy ammunition, shells?
Yes. After detecting sniper fire.

Who directed the D-9s?
The unit commander.

He would decide which house was to be taken down?
Yes. After consulting the company commander. The company commander would request confirmation of the Brigade Headquarters and the unit commander would work directly with them.

 
In all of that house razing activity, were there cases of explosive charges blowing up?
Not while I was there.

And in the orchards around?
Not while I was there. But I was told there were during the first week.

You're saying there was plenty of infrastructure work during your week there.
Yes.

How many D-9s in action?
Two or three.

Working nonstop?
Yes… It wasn't a dense block of crowded buildings with houses razed in the middle. These were scattered buildings. It is a farming area, there are plenty of fruit groves between houses. There's sort of a street, several streets, not well-ordered infrastructure, so after taking down houses there was this bare feeling, but you had a fruit tree grove or orchard which was totally razed and houses taken down – and the overall sense might be that everything was empty. It's not like that. There was a house taken down here and there. The feeling is it's all sand dunes, all the streets were destroyed and there were shell pits from the bombings before the ground offensive. At least this is the logical explanation. We were there for a week, not doing too much – basically holding our positions, being on the lookout, sending out an occasional search, taking another house over to search it. At some point our officer decided he'd hold a grenade-launching practice because we hadn't managed that before we entered. So we went to a house next door, took an inner room, and each person came along and threw a grenade inside. The house was totally devastated. At some point a grenade flew out a window and hit a gas pipe, gas started leaking and we stopped the practice. Went back. Occasionally some civilians would show up. Another force searched a house nearby and found civilians inside. They assembled them, I don't know what they did with them. One day some refugees, civilians, came in and were searched and taken away, or assembled in the house next door. I think they had been there the whole time. There was not much control over this. They were used as "Johnnies" (at a different point in the interview the witness described the 'Johnnie' procedure, using Palestinian civilians as human shields during house searches), and then released, and we’re finding them in later searches.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

One night, I don't know whether it was the first or second week, but it was certainly after about 5-6 days we had already been inside. I think this was already the second week. There was an outpost briefing. Everyone assembled in the main hallway. The company commander spoke, the platoon commander spoke. We spoke, and *** asked me if I, too, see something blinking on the road? We observe it for a few seconds and see a light blinking far away and after another few seconds realize it's a person. Someone is walking down the road in our direction. As time goes by we can identify more. He's walking, holding a torch, wearing a white shirt, has a long beard, an old man walking down the middle of the road. We inform about the detection, and as he approaches he is apparently unarmed. Then the company commander arrives, all worked up, looks here and there, identifies and says "All snipers up to the roof." We ask, "Why all snipers up to the roof? What's the matter?" He only said, "All the snipers up to the roof, you can rely on me." It takes a while for them to get there. The man comes closer, about 150 meters from us, then the commander goes on saying, "Don't worry, it'll be all right." At a distance of 100 meters we can tell for sure that he's not holding anything. The only thing he might be carrying is an explosive belt, or he is an information gatherer for the Hamas. I can't tell. As for any present threat, however, there was nothing. We knew that. We report to the company commander that the guy is holding nothing and ask him to allow deterrent fire. This was nighttime. The rules were "gray." On the one hand at night if you see someone you take him down. On the other hand you're looking at a person walking down the middle of the road holding a torch, looking more as though he is searching for shelter or food or he's drugged. He doesn't seem to be on his way to kill us. But you know, at the end of the day it's the operational considerations that count. We ask for permission to open deterrent fire. The commander refuses and says they'll be ready soon. The Palestinian is already 70-80 meters from us and we ask again about deterrent fire. It's getting touchy because at a distance of 50 meters an explosive belt can take down everyone in the room. He approaches and everyone's already on to him and I hear guys from other houses telling us to take him down already. The man is 50 meters from us and there's yelling on our radio. At this point it's fire proper, not deterrent fire. The man reached about 20-25 meters from the house. Another second and we're pulling the trigger. Suddenly a burst of fire is heard from upstairs, making us all jump. The old man gave such a scream as I'll never forget as long as I live. Everyone is shooting and shooting and the guy's screaming. The commander comes downstairs, glowing. "Here's an opener for tonight." He was asked why he wouldn't confirm deterrent fire. He said, "It's nighttime and this is a terrorist." When we said he knew the guy had nothing on him and only holding a torch, he said, "That doesn't matter. It's nighttime, etc., etc." There was a feeling that people were out to kill there, and no one felt bad about it. Later someone brought it up again with the company commander when we got out, and asked him again why he didn't approve of opening deterrent fire. After all it had been a man walking on the road with a torch and a white shirt. The next morning we sent out the explosive-detector dog to sniff him out. The guy was clean, nothing on him. Except for a torch in his hand, a white shirt and a long beard. A 50-60 year-old man lying on the road. I felt uneasy about the whole thing, but knew that it wouldn't do any good to bring it up right there and confront the company commander in the middle of Gaza.

What was the talk with him about after you came out?
Someone asked him why, and he said again it was because of nighttime and such. Guys told him the man was an innocent and we must remember there's civilian population in there as well, not just terrorists, and the fact the terrorists wear civilian clothes doesn't mean any civilian must be killed etc… He didn't agree and couldn't give a damn, and finally the guys felt that even if they would take this up with higher echelons, it would be ineffective. So this is where matters stayed.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

When you go in, what is your objective?
We were still waiting to receive orders to enter, we hadn't heard anything yet, even our commanders hadn't heard much. We were simply told to "hold the junction, control it." Apparently the higher echelons were clear about not going further into phase 3 and only entering in order to create pressure and perhaps just put their foot on the first rung of the ladder, just in case we do eventually climb it. But we went in knowing it was for a few days because we're doing this phase. Although we did hear that a political move was forming, let's say.

So in fact there was no objective.
Right. We had to take over a military area. We had no main line of vision onto Tancher road. Another platoon from our company held that. My own platoon and another formed the northernmost line, the most forward, the furthest from the fence… They received an instruction not to allow any movement along Tancher road.

What does that mean?
It means that if a vehicle moves along this road, orders are to shoot just ahead of the vehicle so that the driver would realize he is being targeted and mustn't travel there so he'd turn back. There was one case where – until they did realize this – a truck was shot at, but it turned around and I don't know whether anyone in it was injured.

This was in effect both day and night time?
Especially at night. No vehicle. First of all, Palestinians weren't moving around there at night, and secondly, in the day time there was traffic and it was stopped by gunfire. Our distance from the road was about 200-300 meters. That was more or less the range… We controlled the road and prevented movement as we were instructed. There was one case there of a motorcycle riding around, I don't know where and what the rules of engagement were for the armored corps, but anyway the tank fired a shell at the motorcycle and hit it. I don't know what happened to it but I believe nothing much was left of the guy.

I want to back up some. You mentioned a truck that was targeted. What happened there, what was the story as far as you know?
We had instructions not to allow passage. Whoever was on duty at the time the truck arrived did not notice what was happening and it may have surprised him. It advanced further than the instructions allowed, so he fired in order to stop it, firing at the spot that was usually targeted. The truck had already reached that spot and he simply fired at it.

This took place in day- or night-time?
Daytime.

The instruction to shoot in front of a moving vehicle applies to machine gun fire or shelling?
Not shells, light gunfire, machine gun or M16 rifle. One can easily aim in front of the vehicle, there are also marksmen, no problem.

Okay, what about pedestrian traffic?
For pedestrian traffic, the entrance was on the road coming out at Sufa Crossing. The whole road was open when the ground offensive began. They bulldozed the track parallel to the road, so it was open for movement.

And civilians?
None there. As soon as the operation started, they all escaped into the towns.

So all the villages around there actually…
Were almost totally abandoned. I'm sure there were civilians here and there, but not many.

You didn't see even one through your binoculars?
None. I’m telling you, I saw none, and the guys in my company were telling me and I couldn't figure out if they were pulling my leg. I assume it was the truth.

When you enter a house, you're given certain instructions – not administrative, operational?
The Israeli army runs its outpost procedure by the book… One of the things in this procedure is setting red lines. It means that whoever crosses this limit is shot, no questions asked.

Shoot to kill?
Shoot to kill, yes. In our case, in the house where we were, the western exit, our operation front was the northern one, this house opened to the west, its yard surrounded by a cement block wall, about 15 meters from the house door. We were instructed to shoot to kill anyone entering the yard. Same was true for other directions as well. Anyone who showed up in back of the house was shot – to kill. We were to shoot to kill anyone within our lines, no second thoughts.

In the daytime?
Nighttime too. At night these red lines were more flexible. They were set further from the house assuming that civilians don't roam around at night and whoever does is out to do us harm.

He need not be armed?
The red-line framework stipulates that if anyone is detected far from the red line and is unarmed, he has to be cleared. I didn't hear it in so many words, but that's what we did. We had done a reserves tour of duty just before being called up for the special deployment: it's not exactly the same, but we were at Kerem Shalom and whoever approached the fence, had to be cleared by us. That's what I understood I had to do. Whoever did not cross the red line, had to be cleared by us unless he was armed and with intent, as they say, and then you shoot to kill.

I'd like to understand: by rules of engagement at night, what happens to anyone seen out on the street in your vicinity?
If he does not cross a red line, you want to clear him and get him back indoors. Again, these were not the orders I received. This was what we heard in our training.

What were your orders?
I didn't really have any. I don't know if it's me specifically. I believe this was the general line because I don't believe they'd do anything differently than what we'd been trained to do. Essentially if someone is outdoors and can be cleared and moved indoors that's better. In order not to just kill, as well as not to expose us. If shots are fired from our house then obviously it's a house held by the Israeli army and draws fire.

Meaning that the whole time you're in that house, there are no external signs of your presence.
Essentially, that's right – unless we, or Golani before us, were detected. But from the outside you couldn't tell there were soldiers inside a certain house.

I’m trying to understand how this works. You never had anyone just moving out in the street?
No. No movement whatsoever. Animals were moving around freely, but no humans. I didn't see nor hear anyone there.

What did you see when you came in?
As I said, tracks were cleared open. Movement took place along the tracks opened by the bulldozers, depending on operational necessity of course, and not in the field or hothouse there. I saw lots of demolished houses. Some from shelling, some as a result of bombings from the air, others destroyed by D-9 bulldozers or Corps of Engineers demolition units. Blasting. Mainly I saw a lot of ruined houses. I can't specify a number, but along our route approximately half of the houses were hit one way or another.

Half of the houses you saw upon entry into the area were ruined?
Not totally ruined. Either shelled or demolished by bulldozers, or bombed from the air.

Were you told why they were destroyed?
In our own preparations, there were houses taken down where in every case a commander had decided to do so because they were suspect, there had been information about the house, and the commander would say he would not go by it before it was 'taken care of' one way or another. This was also how we planned our route before we went in – we wanted to take down this or that house in order for it not to jeopardize us because it is suspected to contain explosives.

Because you had intelligence information about it?
Yes. There was this house that Golani entered but it was our own battalion that did the field analysis for it and wanted to take it down. This is something I heard incidentally, that it was Golani sitting in the house we wanted to take down.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

From the onset, he and the brigade commander and other officers made it very clear to us that any movement must entail gunfire.

No matter what kind of movement?
You don't need to be shot at. Suffice it that you suspect there's movement, and this was before we entered our own designated area. I don't remember if the brigade commander said this or someone else. I'm not sure: no one is supposed to be there, if you see any signs of movement at all, you shoot. These, essentially, were the rules of engagement. Shoot if you like. If you're afraid, or you see someone, shoot.

Even if there's no jeopardy?
That's the meaning of this, yes. You don't only shoot when threatened. The assumption is that you constantly feel threatened, so anything there threatens you, and you shoot. No one actually said "shoot regardless" or "shoot anything that moves." But we were not ordered to open fire only if there was real threat.

Did you feel threatened coming in?
Yes. We got alerts the whole time. The sense of threat was literally being built up in us. I can say this about ourselves, we were very frightened. In actual fact there was no reason to be, but we felt threatened. Not that anything happened to justify this, but from the outset, we entered Gaza in fear. It's important to reiterate that as reservists, we want to get back home as safely as possible. It's different. Listen, I have been a regular. It's a different kind of feeling. You're afraid even to get into a tank on maneuvers. You don't want to get hurt, you don't want anything to happen to you. Consequently we're also more cautious with opening fire, we don't want to start off something that would get us stuck there. In general reservists are more careful, they don't run unnecessary risks. As for the rules of engagement, we did not get instructions to shoot at anything that moved, but we were generally instructed: if you feel threatened, shoot. They kept repeating to us that this is war and there opening fire is not restricted.

… After getting in positions, were you watching the houses all day or at night?
We watched them all the time.

You reported any suspect movement?
There was nothing there. Ghost towns. Except for some livestock, nothing moved. One tank of our company had a run-in, identified an anti-tank missile that was about to be fired at it, so it fired and that was that. Rumors ran that our tank was shelled by a mortar. Three hours later someone said to us, "Didn't you hear you'd been fired at?" We had no idea we were fired at. Alerts kept coming in all the time about a woman suicide bomber about to reach us in twenty minutes. None of these alerts ever materialized.

How was she going to reach you?
We got no information on that on radio, they just told us which direction she was supposed to come from and to keep on the lookout in that direction. Beyond that, we didn't hear much.

She was supposed to come on foot?
Yes. The alert was "Woman suicide bomber on her way to the position." Something along that line, not too many details. "Within an hour or two." We kept getting alerts about a sniper in our area, about a group of five observed inside a house that could be an anti-tank missile crew. We constantly got all these alerts and none of them materialized as far as our company was concerned. That does not mean they were empty alerts. The rest of the time we sat in the tank and were on lookout and ambushes, and kept seeing fire all around us, constant artillery fire, navy, air force, and regular units that were activated continuing from where we had been situated.
Our designated area was so narrow because beyond those 500 meters, Israeli army units were in action, paratroopers and battalion ***, and we were not allowed to fire outside our area. Occasionally another area was opened to us. We heard that company L opened fire a lot, there were rumors around the battalion, can't tell you how true they were, but rumor had it that they had emptied large amounts of ammo together with the infantrymen. Beyond these rumors I don't know what happened or didn't.
I can only talk about what our company did which is not much… There were really absurd incidents during our stay there. One day we sat and had our afternoon coffee. Suddenly the battalion commander's tank, five meters away from us, fired a shell into a building. Why did he shoot? I don't know why. Perhaps he received an alert, maybe not. I wasn't on radio. It looked groundless to me, more of a "wakeup call" for the company. There were cases where a terrorist was suspected to be hanging around the tanks. I think that someone simply came out of one of the tanks and a lookout detected him and thought this was a terrorist climbing onto a tank, so the whole area was alerted and there was this moment of hysteria, panic, and the next day an area near the battalion headquarters was razed, and a yard that had been there – just disappeared. The D-9 expanded the position. Such things happened all the time, but I can't testify about this beyond my own personal recollection.

Were there house demolitions in your area?
All the time. Houses were demolished everywhere. You see clearly that these houses had been fired at with tremendous power. We didn't see a single house that remained intact, beginning with such scenes as you saw photographed – a house totally shattered or a house with a huge hole in it or many bullet hits on it. We didn't see a single house that was not hit. The entire infrastructure, tracks, fields, roads – was in total ruin. The D-9 had gone over everything, building up the tank positions and preparing the routes. Nothing much was left in our designated area. It looked awful, like in those World War II films where nothing remained. A totally destroyed city. The few houses that were still inhabitable were taken by the army. The less a house was damaged, all the more chances were it would be entered by soldiers to spend the day or night. As I said, there were lots of abandoned, miserable animals.

During your week inside the tank position were there still D-9s demolishing houses around and entering neighborhoods across from you?
All the time. Definitely. During the week we were there, almost daily, armored infantry would go into a house, this was not D-9s. It was armored infantry since they suspected the houses to be booby-trapped – they blasted the houses. They would open a hole in order to enter the house not through the regular entry door. There were constant blasts, and the D-9s would expand the tank positions and routes. Corps of Engineers was engaged there nonstop, with houses containing no one. It was funny because at some point someone said – I don't quite remember who, I think our deputy commander or the company commander himself – that our company is supposed to be more active, assigned to do more. So, really, houses were entered where no one was present, and anyway those houses were monitored and I, personally, never saw anyone in there, perhaps the commanders did find a reason to enter them. I didn't see the reason to enter houses in an empty area where we were monitoring the houses nonstop. Still houses were entered and damage was done to property, for we only saw property, not one person. No obvious reason whatsoever. Perhaps they thought there were weapons inside. I didn't see any reason for this activity, but it was ongoing, all the time.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

Before the first time we went in, the battalion commander had us all stand in formation on Friday evening and said: "We cannot surprise them with our timing, they know when. We cannot surprise them with our location, they know exactly where we're coming in. What we do have… is fire power." And in fact all that fire power, what with air force, artillery, armored corps and the quantity of infantry that went in, the awareness of each soldier going in is simply… a light finger on the trigger. You see something and you're not quite sure? You shoot.

Is this something you were told?
It's something that was said: he (the battalion commander) said it and at the moment I was quite sure of what he meant. I pretty much agreed with him. He said: Not a hair will fall off a soldier of mine, and I am not willing to allow a soldier of mine to risk himself by hesitating. If you are not sure – shoot. If there is doubt then there is no doubt. We understood this and said that it's not because people wanted to kill, to collect hits or glory. It's because they wanted to preserve human lives at any cost. We all know, we're all living in this country and know that the soft belly is casualties in all of the wars, and they simply wanted to stick to this, perfectly. Let alone abduction procedure and such things, where the instruction was explicit – if you're not sure, kill. Fire power was insane. We went in and the booms were just mad. The minute we got to our starting line, we simply began to fire at suspect places. Also, it was still dark when we went in, we got there just before dawn. You see a house, a window, shoot at the window. You don't see a terrorist there? Fire at the window. It was real urban warfare. This is the difference between urban warfare and a limited confrontation. In urban warfare, anyone is your enemy. No innocents. It was simply urban warfare in every way. We went in there house after house, going around each other every time. 99% of the houses were empty.

You enter houses with live fire?
No. The instruction was to get everyone out of the house or concentrate them in one room. Announce it through loudspeakers. Give it a few minutes, and if the person is not out after 2-5 minutes, whoever is left inside is a dead man. Whoever comes out – assemble them outside or in one of the lower rooms, and then go upstairs with live fire. This was the instruction, and it was not always followed because often the houses were empty. So why waste ammunition? Just shooting for fun? Some people did but this was not always the case. Eventually there were no confrontations at all and people were disappointed and began to let off steam and simply shoot. In general people (Palestinians) came downstairs, we'd order them to go over there, point in some direction and tell them to go there. They'd protest, 'But this is our home. We have nowhere to go,' and we… These were the orders, if not on the battalion level, then from the brigade or a general army instruction. I don't know. But it's not something the platoon or company commander decided on the spot. It was obvious when we went in that the people are not allowed to stay inside the houses. We directed them towards a certain area hoping they wouldn't be hit there. In our designated area we directed them southwards in the Gaza Strip towards where our forces were not present. We sent them south. We did not abuse them. But it hurts when five mothers, an old woman and little children look at you and the woman says "I have nowhere to go" and there's nothing you can do. It has to happen. You toughen up. You look her in the eye and say: "Over there." And they walk away. As soon as someone comes out, you announce that these are innocents moving south and usually it also happens in daytime, not nighttime. The houses are taken over and we set ourselves inside according to plan.

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description: After the Second Lebanon War the army began to prepare to enter Gaza, at least as far as I know. We had special maneuvers for such an operation twice, a battalion maneuver according to previous planning. The battalion was assigned to separate Rafah and Khan Yunis, isolate Rafah so that another force would be able to search Rafah and locate tunnels. I was called up on Sunday.


As soon as the ground offensive began.
Yes. The ground offensive started Saturday night. We reported on Sunday, we had already trained… Finally what we did was to enter Friday night, which was already two weeks after getting called up, as replacements for the Golani (infantry brigade) company's positions. Like us, they had been under command of a regular tank brigade. Their brigade commander was commander of the area and we were under his charge… We took over the houses that Golani had taken, one to one. I didn't hear in our battalion of anyone who shifted position in the short time we were there. I think that Golani too stayed in the same positions or houses. I think that tanks did shift, but not too much.


You entered a house – what did this look like? What condition was the house in?
Essentially all the maneuvers we had in recent years were to execute 'dry' entry, 'wet' entry, and after we were deployed and we began to get lessons learned from the fighting in Gaza, we realized there's no such thing as a 'dry' entry. All entries were 'wet,' depending on the situation, naturally. There was no such thing any more, 'dry' entry.


So how does 'wet' entry work?
Missiles, tank fire, machine gun fire into the house, grenades. Shoot as we enter a room. The idea was that when we enter a house, no one there could fire at us. Naturally by combat reasoning we would not take a house that the Hamas would expect us to take, for it would be highly likely for the Hamas to booby-trap it.


So 'wet' entry means closing in on the house and firing Lau missiles?
Yes. RPG, LAU. That's what we were prepared for. In fact, when we arrived at a house, it was intact, no one had fired at it, no one fired at Golani when they went in, they had no one to fire at. Just like the houses I saw where we'd been, which had not been fired at, and nothing was broken. No walls were broken to get in. The men must have taken the house 'dry.'


What was the state of the house, its contents?
We were in a house with very little furniture. There were some plastic chairs and mattresses and the bedroom contained a bed, a closet and a kind of commode. I think Golani had searched the closet, taken it apart and thrown the clothes out to search, to make sure there was no explosive charge inside.


You didn't see any destruction beyond that? Just a normal military search.
Yes, there was no intentional destruction beyond the normal military search. Very little. Only some cooking utensils were in the kitchen, a refrigerator, gas stove, all that. There was a bowl with pitta bread that people had prepared before they ran out and no one had touched the bread, no one ate it, neither Golani, nor we. According to combat logic, you don't eat anything that might contain some sort of poison. And they really didn't touch it. We used their mattresses and blankets for sitting and sleeping. As for other houses where guys from my company stayed, one house was still only at the skeletal stage so nothing there was destroyed, there was no equipment inside. Another house, if I understood correctly, I am not sure, but that's what I was told and I believe it – there were civilians held up in their own home, true to the army's normal procedure, when they're caught, cleared and confirmed that they're not carrying any weapons or explosives. When we were still preparing we were told this would include women and the elderly. We'd have to clear them, meaning they have to lift their garments, take off whatever was necessary, including women, including unveiling themselves, because some Hamas men dress as women and there are also women suicide bombers. That's procedure. Anyway, in the second or third house the company took there were four people, the owner's family. We came there to take food and I saw the house. It was elegantly furnished and nicely built. It too was being looked after the way we did in ours. Men did not vandalize it intentionally. They made feasible military use of it only.