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.