Name: *** Rank: first sergeant Unit: Nachal Description: We reached the local council building. All hell had broken loose. Detainees had to be assembled. We're no recon-unit, after all, we didn't usually make arrests. They brought the detainees and we had to begin guarding them and take the council building. We brought sand-sacks over there. At the same time, one of the guys from my own company, from my platoon, even, decided to write numbers on the council house doors, for some reason, which really got on my nerves.
Meaning what?
Army positions were created there, so he wrote number on the doors.
With a spray can?
No. A marker. And he drew a moustache on all kinds of pictures there, posters, which really made me angry. I didn't say anything, no time for that. Later I reported this to my sergeant. That soldier left the battalion anyway. He was assigned to the Shabak's VIP security unit.
Guys from the Nahal recon-unit began to pick up souvenirs there, too. I remember their platoon commander really yelled at them for this.
What do you mean? What did they pick up?
Oh, you know, this was mind-blowing for them. They were young soldiers, on their second or third bout in the territories. We entered an office full of chairs, pens, computers, the works, full of pictures of Arafat, flags, little banners, so they began to collect some souvenirs, out of some instinct that is very relevant to moral deterioration. And these are good guys.
So their commander caught them in the act?
Yes. He yelled at them. I remember him yelling at them there.
Name: *** Rank: first sergeant Unit: Nachal elite unite Description: There was a plan for an ambush – snipers were to sit on some hill, and a patrol jeep would drive around and a disturbance would begin.
What do you mean? There are places in Huwwara, like schools and such, where when you come around you get stones thrown at you. So in order to teach them a lesson, the company commander wanted to set a sniper ambush, so they'd learn not to throw stones because then they'd get shot in the knees.
For throwing stones?
For throwing stones.
Throwing stones at the patrol jeep? Right. What happened was that we have officers my age, 2-3 years older than me at the most, who really let him have it. There was a company discussion, I wasn't present. Somehow I got away. At that discussion, one of the officers, a crew commander, got up and told this company commander: No problem, all the soldiers said they were not ready to do this, so he said – no problem. If you give me an order to do it, I will. Just so you know that at my position, everyone will have their catch on. They will not open fire at children throwing stones. There were all kinds of things said along this line, and eventually he let go of the original idea. If people there were just a little different, it would undoubtedly have happened. First, if they were not reservists, and second, if they were not very strong people who have their say.
Name: *** Rank: first sergeant Unit: Nachal elite unite Description:On that reserves tour of duty you made arrests?
Yes.
Neighbor procedure?
Not neighbor procedure. Nowadays it's called 'home-call', or something like that. The last person in the house goes in, not right ahead of the force. He enters the house, makes sure all the windows and closets are open, all the lights are on, passages to roofs and yards open. Then we go in. I wanted to go in 'wet', tell you the truth. The company commander said there was no need for that. That commander… (At another point in the interview the interviewee described this commander as an extremist).
I was pretty amazed, I guess if we'd pressured him some more we'd go in 'wet' (with live ammo).
So that was that. We went in. The younger fellows did it, because they know how. Then a few other guys, my own age, went in.
Name: *** Rank: first sergeant Unit: Nachal elite unite Description:Were there cases of 'neighbor procedure'?
All the time (…) It was just no longer 'neighbor procedure'. It wasn't a procedure. We would simply ask the last guy to exit the house to check that no one was left inside because we don't want anyone to get hurt. So turn on all the lights, open all the doors.
Do you recall a specific example?
Countless arrests we made. This is how the army operates now. Don't let anyone tell you any differently. Even nowadays. The last person out of the house checks that there's no one left inside because we don't want to hurt them, he turns on all the lights, opens all the closets, cupboard doors. To tell you the truth, this is not necessarily to make him a human shield against some bomb prepared to trap us, but rather so that the search can be carried out more professionally.
Name: *** Rank: first sergeant Unit: Nachal elite unite Description: I remember one specific case where we used a human shield, not as in 'neighbor procedure'. It was a young man from the same house, scared to death. The commander gripped him like, from behind, an arm on his neck, proceeding up the stairs. The terrorist inside had been wanted for 11 years - very high ranking, extremely dangerous person. We knew he entered the Palestinian police building, killed several Palestinian policemen, threw grenades all over, like Rambo, went in and got two of his buddies out of jail. A highly dangerous man.
Where was this, and when?
I think it was Hebron, or Jenin. More likely Hebron for we were active there a lot at the time. It makes sense, Hebron, towards the end of my service, meaning early 2003 or late 2002. He was a senior wanted man who had not exited the building. We knew for certain that he was inside. He had several weapons. Our unit commander advanced and told the guy whose arms he was gripping to tell him we'd kill him if he doesn't come out, if he doesn't surrender. That we were going to kill the guy we were holding if he doesn't surrender. It was all a show, a very… I believed it, as a soldier. Then he was placed against the wall – I've never talked about this – against the wall at the entrance to the room of this senior wanted man. We came with laser sights and normal ammo, so we weren't expecting such reactions. And the unit commander holds his gun to this guy's head and yells: Where is he? Where is he? Finally it worked and he told us where that guy was. It should be noted, in favor of this commander, that the guy was certain he was going to die. I was certain of it too, by the way, as an onlooker.
I mean I didn't think he was really going to kill him but the situation had me very confused.
Name: *** Rank: first sergeant Unit: Nachal elite unite Description: There were instances where we caught terrorists with plenty of blood on their hands. Evil people, demons who had killed women and children and sent out suicide bombers into Israel and had been searched for a very long time. When you catch them and see the hatred in their eyes, you realize this person is a evil incarnate. Sometimes our people couldn't hold back. We're talking here about a very wimpy unit, so I'm referring to very few, exceptional cases, but people didn't hold back and lashed out.
What is that, lashing out? A blow to the head, a punch in the belly, while the detainee is shackled inside the vehicle on the way back, and the Shabak is happy and the regional commander congratulates us on our radio system, and the brigade commander waits for us as we get back and shakes hands with all the combatants. And you say, "Wow, this son-of-a-bitch, sticking him in jail is just not enough. I don't care what happens to him. (…) These are cases that – between us – were not good for the unit. There was this time when someone who was in the army longer than me already, gave such a terrorist a blow inside the vehicle and tried to go on doing it. I don't remember in which village. It was in a village, not a town.
When was this, approximately?
If these guys were with us, it wasn't for long, a bit after a year into service. Late 2001, early 2002 maybe. And this guy began to harass him, I mean he didn't make him bleed, just really drive him crazy. Blows to the head and little shakings. I yelled him to stop and we exchanged blows inside the vehicle. It's a problem, such a situation. You're inside an armored vehicle, getting away after an operation, you've got to let off steam. Everyone is very high-strung, not afraid but really tense. We were exchanging blows until the others separated us. And then he finally stopped. After this case, we had a staff-talk.
What happened in Hebron?
Same thing. We caught some senior terrorist, and the same soldier harassed him. It wouldn't be fair to actually say 'harassed', because it was no more than two blows. The Border Patrolmen are certainly much worse than we are. So that's it, afterwards we sat and talked among the staff, that it's really important to avoid these things, and 'keep our fighting clean'.
Rank: first sergeant Unit: Oketz Place of incident: Gaza Description:
Do you know of any instances where dogs attacked people?
Yes. It has happened not a few times, because it's dogs-- it's an attack dog that got confused and decided that...
Like?
Like one time that there was some, that they called to all the people to come out of the house,
Where was this?
I think in Gaza, it's not something that I saw, I heard about it. That they called everyone to come out of the house, and people who were sleeping didn't hear the shots, didn't hear it or that isn't what happened, I'm not sure about that, and they sent the dog in and the dog fell on some boy and broke, I think, his two hands, it was a whole story, they told me, the dog trainer told me that it was a little traumatic, he pulled the dog off of him and they took the boy directly to the hospital and everything. At the end of the day, it's a dog.
It was an attack dog?
Yes. Search dogs are much more obedient, dogs that are 99% obedient. Attack dogs do completely independent work.
Is there an investigation after something like this happens? Is there any way to respond?
Of course, there was an investigation in the unit and in the brigade, Givati, I don't know what happened there. They asked how it was that a person didn't leave the house, it seems like the person was deaf, that the child was deaf, and he was sleeping in bed, and his parents forgot about him, because they have 50,000 children. So there's nothing to do.
Rank: first sergeant Description:
There is a door, a locked door, we didn’t know that he was a collaborator so we brought some neighbor who would open all the doors and he said, “No no, this one cannot be opened.” So what do you say it cannot be opened? We knock boom boom boom on the door and put th’ dog inside, completely breaking th’ door, a “pladelet” (steel-plated door) like that, we really twisted it. Look with the Golani reconnaissance unit I also had a scene that they took out a shotgun and shot the door. If there was a family inside then fuck it that they wouldn’t come outside.
Why did they shoot at the door, because they didn’t open?
Yes
They knew there were people inside?
Yes, they told us a crazy bust, and someone was said to be there. We were ready to be shot at, they told us: be ready to be shot at, it was, really, covers (with fire) and everything, like, really, really, really
And there they used a neighbor?
There they used a neighbor who would open the doors
When was this?
In the last winter
Ah, in winter 2004?
Yes. So they told him open all the doors, we started from the bottom floor and we went up a floor, we went up, we went up, we went up and you know—doors that he couldn’t open, he said ‘locked door, I don’t know where the neighbors are, I don’t know here I don’t know there’—they didn’t ask questions—either broke through with explosives or broke through without. They exploded the door and went in.
There was also damage to the house?
Also damage from using the shotgun and also damage to the whole doorframe, to the whole area of the door. In general an empty house, a house where you see something strange, something… it is not a house that someone lives in it suddenly. In general you see suddenly sacks of fertilizer, you see there all kinds of things, what he is making here explosive belts or something?! Someone comes, brings a shotgun, takes down th’ door. Think which weapon will do it, like, if you come with a shotgun and shoot the door here. That will throw it in every direction. Do a little damage but you don’t do damage intentionally; your intention is to open the door, and if every door that you want you put an (explosive) brick or a finger (plastic explosive) that could take you years.
This (shotgun) is faster than putting a brick (explosive)?
First thing, you need to leave the building, because there is the danger of collapsing or something, and explode it… full of dust, a total mess…
Does this cause damage to the house?
Cracks in the walls, I believe, not anything, because here you are doing the initiative so that it will be only on the outside, that you are destroying just th’ door itself, that’s all. I would see sometimes they would use a fuse to blow up th’ door.
What is the difference between them? What is the difference between a fuse and an explosive?
A fuse is a little explosion, a lot more localized—you put it on the whole doorframe and then you simply take apart the doorframe.
With a hammer?
No, with the fuse, you put th’ fuse and then it gives boom boom, yes.
Rank: first sergeant Unit: oketz Description:
They sent us to do, to bring someone who was in essence a collaborator and they didn’t tell us that, yes, we went we brought him and then he said that there is some booby-trapped car and we went to the refugee camp we went in, we found inside a run-down house like that, an opened warehouse with a stolen Audi A8 and a Mercedes and a BMW. In the end … a beat-up Subaru! The headquarters everyone took a car—the company commander took one, the operations officer took one,
What does that mean?
Took a car—took th’ car back to Israel.
Ah—they knew that this was stolen Israeli cars?
Do I know if they knew? They took. Afterwards they clarified if it was stolen or not.
What does that mean?
Because it doesn’t seem logical to me that there is there a car with an Israeli license plate in the territories. There is no such thing, no way…
But there are Israelis who go in?
In short, it didn’t match up. They took th’ car don’t know if they returned it, I believe that they returned it—if it was really not stolen, I don’t know exactly what happened. They took the guys into custody, the people of the house, and they took the cars, the cars had in back (they opened all the cars) flyers of Hamas and pictures of people with weapons, all kinds of things like that… they took, we didn’t go into the house at all and they started to shoot a little there, we returned as quickly as possible.
What was there? What was the mission that they gave you? Did they tell you to come to detain the collaborator?
The collaborator who said that there is a booby-trapped car, that the Subaru was said to be booby-trapped and in the end it wasn’t booby-trapped, it was ready to be booby-trapped, like, it had Israeli license plates and inside, license plates for the territories. So it was said to be booby-trapped because the supplies were already there ready and it was supposed to just go into some junkyard and drive. So we stopped that before it…
When you came to detain the collaborator, how does that work?
We come, knock on the door, “kul fil beit”
Did the team knock, or did they do the “neighbor procedure”?
No, in this instance the team knocked. Because it was also less… y’know, less dangerous—you don’t come to detain someone that you have a suspicion about. They detained him, the security services said, you know you don’t argue with the security services, he knows what he is doing.
You took him outside?
We took him outside, we made as if it was a house search, I just went in through the entrance inside, I took him out, we were about to put everyone inside and then the security services said “it’s okay, it’s okay” and took him with him. To make pretensions so that the neighbors wouldn’t see that he is a collaborator. And that’s it, and then we continued the action, finished it in the morning.
Were there some exceptional instances in the action or was it just routine?
Yes, routine.
You took someone or the goal was just to find the cars?
The goal was to find the cars and the person that the cars were with.
Ah, you detained him?
Him we detained, he rode in a car.
And you searched his house?
No, we didn’t go into his house because there was a suspicion about the cars and there was not a suspicion about the house.
Rank: Staff Sergeant Unit: Nahal, 931 Place of incident: Hebron Description: One of the things that happened there, it’s the only thing that happened to me in Hebron that I am really ashamed of, is that we just got to... Speaking of the “Prayer Route”], during one of the searches, without knowing it, to the house of the family of two of the terrorists, who were brothers. And then we see, by the photos on the walls, and by their third brother, who is a twin, he looks just like them, and the pictures, we realize that it is the house of those same terrorists. And we were with an officer. It’s not as if we were had no commanding figure with us, and we, who were looking for weapons in the house, didn’t do it the way it is usually done, trying to somehow leave the house in good shape, we just broke and destroyed and trampled all over the house. That is, even what wasn’t necessary. You know, oops, I accidentally went by with my weapon and smashed the mirror, oops, I broke the bed and tore the... Looking for weapons, and at some point I personally grabbed one of the little brothers there, I remember we were in a craze... You found out that these were the terrorists who had killed your buddies? No, the terrorists who killed our friends got killed in that same incident, these were their brothers.
....An act of rage is very short, you blow a fuse and you, you’ve got power. you have a weapon, you’ve got power. I grab one of the brothers, I remember, and pick him up, I remember I must have been in a craze, I simply lifted him up with one hand in the air against the wall, I asked him in Arabic, now I don’t even remember how you ask that. I asked him where are the weapons in the house. He says to me, there’s none, none, none, no weapons”. He’s scared. I picked him up, threw him on the sofa, then I picked up his brother, sat him on the sofa, and just stuck the barrel of my gun in his face. I put my foot on him, on his stomach, I pointed the gun at his head, or at... I don’t remember – and a lot of times during these searches the weapons are loaded – I said to him: “Tell me now where the weapons are in the house”... And there weren’t any weapons in the house, specifically in that house, and it was over with that, but I guess it wasn’t over with that, because up to this day I, really, it’s one of the things that I... That stays with you.
Yes.
Rank: Staff Sergeant Unit: Nachal 931 Place of incident: Hebron Description:
May-June 2004
About two months ago, one of the soldiers at the checkpoint caught a Palestinian woman with a knife, and she admitted she had come to stab a settler. So we put her at our gate, and she put on a kind of show.
Her eyes were covered and her hands were tied, but the guys from the company were gathered around, and it turned into some kind of comedy performance. I can’t really tell you what went on there, because I didn’t look. But to take a detainee, after he’s been caught, hands bound and eyes covered, and to drop one’s cigarette ashes on him, to do that in his hair, to put out a cigarette on him, or to tighten the handcuffs... Now, at this moment, if the person is a major killer, he’ll pay for it. It doesn’t matter who he is.
If he is a mass murderer or not, he’ll pay for it. It’s irrelevant who he is. He’s a murderer, but what kind of person are you, what kind of man are you, if after the detention you take the prisoner; when he’s already bound you have the “courage” to drop ashes on him, to put out cigarettes on him, and have the doctor write that no abuse occurred.
And – by the way – the gang takes pictures with him in the jeep; drop ashes on him when he’s bound. So I remember…. And they place all kind of things, objects, or they put makeup on him, take pictures with him. There are a thousand things… Take a picture with the detainee… Someone put his weapon on him...
Rank: Sergeant Unit: Nahal Place of incident: Atarot (near Jerusalem) Description:
10/2000
They caught some kid – really young, 11 or 12 years old, I don’t know how old he was – who threw stones. They managed to catch him. It was an all-out abuse. They abused him, and I don’t think something was done about it. They put him in the toilet, I remember the soldier, I remember, he was a friend of mine, a friend from the company. And he took pride in shoving the kid’s head into the toilet…
into the bowl?
Into the bowl. And he was proud of it, and he slammed his head against the bowl, and I don’t know what else. They put him there, he was locked in the toilet for a whole day, by the company commander’s orders, to teach him a lesson. Just locked up there. And from time to time, you know, a soldier who was guarding there would enter, put his head in the toilet, slam his head against the toilet, and I remember he told me that, and I was shocked, but you know, who am I to report this? Today I don’t see it that way, but then [it was different]. I think it was madness, no doubt. I remember that boy crying, what a mess, what… Even without that the boy was already in shock, coming towards ‘the Zionist enemy’, who knows where, a whole platoon of soldiers, all of them want to kill him, in the pretense that he threw a stone. You see; that’s what happened there.
Rank: Staff Sergeant Unit: Egoz elite unit Place of incident: Tel village (near Nablus) Description: I remember a story, it was not humiliation- it was something else- but I remember a person we went to arrest in the village "Tel", near Shchem [Nablus]. We came to arrest someone who was supposed to have a "bomb-belt" in the house, which we could not find. He was a 16 years old boy that started to cry in jail, just like a girl. And because he was so panicked, he fainted in front of his parents. His parents became hysteric, too. And we- I do not know what we were supposed to do or not to do- anyway we grabbed him, picked him up… he fell 3 times on the way – and this is an unconscious man who feels nothing. He gets a blow in the head and nothing happens. We slapped him. And what slaps... We had a gunner who was really a strong man…we slapped him to wake him up for maybe 5 minutes. He also rubbed his chest-bone, which really hurts. We hit him so he will wake up to see that he is not pulling our legs… a 16 years old boy. I am sure he was the wrong man. Not that I knew or will ever know anything. I don't have a clue. That is the whole absurdity. The soldiers do not know. We never knew what was going on. We knew vaguely what he supposed to have done. Usually they would exaggerate the crime. I am sure they exaggerated. Finally we brought him unconscious to custody. That is a part of the whole deal – that you even don't know what happens to them later. I think we let most of them go a day later. We hit them and then we released them, but that is not certified, I just suppose so.
Description: Look, we… most are good people. It is not that most of the guys are problematic; there is only a minority of problematic people. The problem was that back then it was legitimate – to beat the Arabs up, to curse, to humiliate... to aim a rifle to his face, and after a second shoot in the air… these things were legitimate. It was pretty individual. It wasn’t like ‘lets go four or five soldiers, and…’ but there were people who knew they were going to get someone every day. [They were] telling about it freely, take photos… There were guys who took a photo of a Palestinian, after tying him up like a rubber-girl… horrifying stuff. There is a law that says one cannot hit a Palestinian when he is tied up, when his hands are tied up. When the Shabak guy would take the people out of their houses in the middle of the night, they would tie their eyes up, and would hit them in the stomach while they were tied. Write it down like this: 3 am, opening a door, breaking inside the house. The mother is hysteric. The whole family (large families) is hysteric. Someone is sent to check. It wasn’t always a terrorist’s house. Yes – they are captured, taken down stairs… And it is impossible to imagine what goes on inside a person’s head. Their eyes are tied. Two soldiers in the back escorting the guy, and more soldiers join. And these were the same people – 15 people in the company who were a problematic minority. And – simply – a tied up person, and they were kicking him in the stomach, in the head…
Wasn’t it reported to the commanding officers?
It was a commanding officer! An important commanding officer! When you are on your mandatory service you don’t know about anything… If doing it weren’t legitimate, he wouldn’t have done that! It is simply because it is like this: a wild west, and everyone [does] what he wants.
And the soldiers just take it as obvious?
I don’t exactly remember whether or not I appreciated the guy. I cannot ignore it and say: “Well, that’s the way he is.” But the truth is, when I think about it now, I should have done something. It should definitely have been stopped. You don’t think like this [when you are there]… you take it to be the reality… it shouldn’t be, it shouldn’t happen, they are shitty for doing that… but you don’t know exactly what to do about it…
You come back home. Do you tell it to your mom and dad?
No way! I repressed it.
Your parents didn’t know nothing?
No way! You are part of it. There is really not much you can do. Especially since they are officers and you’re only a simple armor-troops soldier, and they don’t even piss in your general direction. So – what? Fight them? Stop them? Interfere with what they are doing? You can’t interfere with the group cohesion of the company. You can’t fight with people while you’re there. It would not have happened now. I would not have let it happen now – but that’s not such a big deal, ‘cause I’m now a reserve soldier.
Rank: First sergeant Place of incident: The Nablus Kasbah Description:
End of 2003
We were on our way to an arrest. Fire exchange… It was on the way to the arrest…We were shot at. We took positions, we shot back. In the end, we didn't carry out the arrest… There was a round of fire, and every half an houror so a shot was heard somewhere in the area… They were shooting at us... You get into a state... There are no 'rules of engagement'... Nothing… And no identification of the sources of fire... We got into a house, we took control of a house, took positions, then started "firing back at the sources of fire..." Nobody knew where are the sources of fire but we fired back at the sources of fire. We were shooting. Then a guy says: "I spot a figure on the roof" - shoot it. "I spot a figure in the window" - take him down. Listen, bullets are flying around us… At the end of the night – a woman with a bullet in her neck. 24 Years old. Bullet in the neck, and the Red Crescent found her.
Do you have any idea who killed her?
I have no idea. One of us. That's it.
Rank: officer Unit: officer in officer training academy Place of incident: Hebron Description: October 2002
The truth is that this was a week that really influenced me. They take you out of the base to do training, but instead of training in a training facility, you train "live" on Palestinians. Evey night a different cadet gets an assignment. Assignments like arrests, things like that, and I would operate as a soldier and get an outside perspective.
Oh, your cadet... Yeah, and me, the officer.. I am one of the soldiers for the duration of the assignment. And that is the point of training live. it's really awful.
And the assignments? We had an assignment to arrest some wanted guy. So we all paint our faces and take out the family in the middle of the night.. regular house arrest stuff. I mean, the soldiers were OK, but looking from the outside, i realized that it doesn't really matter if i smile at the family or show them i don't really want to be there, we are still performing the same action. It turned out that we were supposed t arrest some disabled 60 year old. The police didn't even want to take him into custody. We left him for a couple of hours outside blindfolded.
I don't know, there was some secret service guy who accompanied us, maybe he was looking for something else but he didn't tell us. But for me it really opened my eyes.. or at least sealed it for me...because I understood how much i traumatized that family for nothing.
Rank: first seargent Unit: 202 battalion paratroopers Place of incident: Nablus Description: End of 2003 Beginning of 2004
So we did once this fake arrest in a store in the market. Just walk into a shop, the one that looks most comfortable. At the same time, snipers walk into the houses near by and we wait there in the shop for lie 40 minutes like idiots, hoping that nobody in the middle of town will shoot at us... we were in the alley, hoping that the snipers would hit them befor they...
Wait, was there a reason that you made this arrest? I don't know. There wasn't any intelligence. Our company commander gace the order.
Without preparation? No no. We planned for this for three days. We looked at areal photographs, and he said that he will choose this shop because it is most comfortable for us.
Was there curfew at the time? No
And there were people in the alley? Everything is full. That is the point. everything was full. You know, like a market...
And you go in? Yeah, with stun grenades and shots in the air. A small shop with a window to the street and when we go in, people start to run away...
What is the idea? That armed Palestinians will come and our guys will shoot them... we were just sitting ducks.
And what did you do all this time? Nothing, Tried to take cover.. if someone comes at us
Scary? yeah.
How long? 40 minutes. The idea was that it will look like an arrest till the end. That they won't understand that this is a trick. SO you actually arrest someone. We take him to the central base and then they release him. Once the store was empty and another time there were three old people there.
So there wasn't anyone to take? Yeah, but that didn't deter the commander to take the 70 year old man, cuff him and arrest him
And to take him? Yeah, but we didn't take him in the end because it was pointless...
Rank: First Sergeant Unit: Egoz, Golani brigade Description:
Winter of 2002.
The event took place in a certain village in the Samaria area whose name I cannot remember, during a routine activity of arrests that we carried out. During the activity I was with the force that was supposed to guard others from the unit who did some arrests. During this action some inhabitants came out to the street, settled on the roofs and started throwing down building blocks towards us, while we were driving in a partially-armored vehicle. At a certain point we turned into a street and were met by some people, mainly children, who came out of an alley and started throwing stones and blocks. As a response we shot unfocused live ammunition in order to drive them away. I remember this event clearly because I remember myself afterwards asking myself how come we could shoot like that towards kids. After the operation we raised the issue in the investigation – how the firing regulations must be made clearer in regard to such situations, as the definition of a state of danger is not clear enough in such situations, especially as we didn’t have, as in almost any of the other operations, any adequate means to disperse disorders that aren’t lethal. But there was no response or change of the regulations (in concern).
.
Rank: officer Unit: elite unit Description: I wasn't there.
OK. But what was the story? What did you hear in the briefing?
I heard what happened. That the unit's commander was upset with the soldier and that he was reprimanded.
What happened? Simple arrest, they isolated the house. In one of the corners ogf the houses, a veteran soldier sees an elderly Palestinian with something in his hand. He yells at him to stop so the man starts running to the soldiers (he didn't know they were there). So the soldier thought he was endangering the unit and shot to the man's legs and shot his thigh and crotch.
That's it, the field commander ordered an ambulance to take care of the soldier.
SO what was the problem with the soldier? He didn't make the right decision
What should he have done? He should have shot in the air if at all. The soldiers were supposed to know that. They were in Gaza beforehand. So the unit commander reprimanded him in front of everyone, even though they were people in the unit who said that the commander was weakening our soldiers.
Rank: Two First Sergeants Unit: Maglan Elite Unit Place of incident: Bethlehem Description:
2004
Witness 1: I would like to tell one more story before I tell you about the neighbor procedure. In Al-Aidde, in Bethlehem. It was around Passover, I think it was around Passover 2004. In February two suicide bombings took place in Jerusalem, and both came out from Bethlehem. They decided to enter the city with great forces. There was a Duvdevan (elite unit) operation there a week earlier, if you can remember it. Someone was hiding in a ditch in Al-Aidde, and a soldier there, ***, he was also paralyzed – shot in the chest. He was paralyzed from the waist down. In short, a week later we entered to make an arrest in house next door.
In the house next door we arrested the terrorist’s cousin – the terrorist who hit [and paralyzed one of the soldiers] and who was killed by Duvdevan. We were after his cousin. I wasn’t involved in the actual arrest. I stayed in the vehicle, but the force stood right under the house and the lookout post told them there was someone on the roof. So the platoon commander suddenly reported an OK shooting [to let the other forces know not to take action] – he shot once, and they just kept knocking on the door, and got no response.
OK shooting what?
Wittness 1: Wait. We were waiting, waiting, waiting. Five minutes later the platoon commander gets on the radio and says: “I might have hit someone.” So the battalion commander gets on the radio and says: “what do you mean? Did you see anyone armed?” So he [platoon commander] says: “No, I only saw a head peeking on the roof. I took a shot in its direction. I don’t know if I hit him or not.” So he [battalion commander] says: “What do you mean you don’t know?” “What does that mean? Did you see anyone armed?” So he [platoon commander] calls the outlook post, because they reported having seen someone on the roof: “You said he was armed, didn’t you?” so they tell him: “No. We didn’t see anything armed.” He [platoon commander] goes: “Well, I don’t know if I hit him or not.” Meanwhile there is no response from the house. We had some dog-handlers with us. They got a dog in. The dog worked on that person for some 20 minutes.
What does that mean?
Witness 1: When he identifies a person he…
Witness 2: He eats him.
Witness 1: He eats him. After 20 minutes…
What, does that mean that this is the dog’s job?
Witness 1: We hear him barking inside for some 20 minutes.
Witness 2: An assault dog. It eats people.
Witness 1: 20 minutes later they decide that the force will go inside. They see the person…
Because the dog did not come back?
Witness 1: Yes. They take the dog out. The force enters. The dog dragged the person from the roof one floor down – the person was all eaten and all. They called a doctor to make sure the guy was dead, only that the minute the doctor touched him the man jumped – he was still alive. He was in a hospital for a week and then died.
Where did he take the bullet?
Witness 1: in the head
And that did not kill him?
Witness 1: Neither the 20 minutes the dog was eating him.
And did the doctor manage to take any care of him?
Witness 1: he was evacuated to Haddasah Ein-Karem hospital, where he was hospitalized for a week, and then died.
Witness 2: I think he got respiration aid.
On the spot?
Witness 2: Yes.
And he wasn’t armed?
Witness 1: An hour later, we searched for weapons in the house, like, ‘You got to find weapons here’ (the platoon commander said) but we didn’t find any. He wasn’t armed.
Witness 2: You see, ‘You have to find weapons here.’
Witness 1: No, what do you mean ‘have to’… He wanted to search the place.
Witness 2: had we found a weapon it would mean the man had been armed.
Witness 1: It is not as if he would put a weapon next to the body to cover up his ass. This is not the point. He wanted that for his conscience. The minute he shot him… He didn’t even know whether this was the person we came to arrest. Later, we learnt it was he. It calmed his conscience. I think… At least this was indeed the man we came to arrest. Also, it wasn’t really clear how much of a terrorist he was, if at all. He was a cousin of a terrorist. I don’t know, he might have been a terrorist, and he might not. I don’t know.
What happened in debriefing ?
Witness 2: Also, when the guy died he [the platoon commander] said, “I made it. I killed him.”
Witness 1: the investigation did not find that anyone operated wrongfully.
Did it end there?
Witness 1: Yes. There was a debriefing – like after any operation in which something unusual happens. I can also understand him, as a platoon commander standing at a house with fifteen guys and sees someone watching him. I would have at least fired a warning shot in the air. He was the only one with the guts to take the responsibility and shoot. Especially since he was a platoon commander and all, and this is a place where shots are fired. One has to do something to stop him from spraying the force. One can shoot in the air, one can do many things, but one does not have to shoot him in the head. He also claimed he couldn’t tell whether he hit him or not. At least that is what he claimed initially. What he reported on the radio was just that there has been an OK shooting.
Has no one asked whether he put a person in his rifle sights?
Witness 1: I didn’t hear the investigation. The battalion commander might have asked him. It didn’t reach us. The battalion commander sounded angry on the radio.
And what was the talk in the company later?
Witness 1: No one was really sorry about it.
Wasn’t there any talk about it?
Witness 1: In our team we talked about it. There wasn’t much…
Witness 2: We were already expecting things like that from him.
