Soldier: Usually when you enter a home you arrive very late at night, when people are asleep, because really you want to surprise them, if it’s to bring in someone who’s wanted. You arrive with a pretty large force. This force can really be spread out throughout the village at all kinds of places that are crucial security points so that you can leave with some kind of general backup of other forces that take part in the maneuver. 

 

Ultimately, when you go to some house and then you send in a force that is at least comparable to a platoon, at least about 20 people, and two people spread out to cover every corner of the house, meaning eight people secure the house and the yard so that if anyone runs – they’ll be able to stop him. And a second force enters the house. Usually it’s led by an officer and he leads the maneuver of breaching the house, and you enter securely with weapons drawn, a bullet in the barrel, and move from room to room to sweep the whole house. 

 

The way it’s done is that the first thing you do is gather the family from all the rooms and separate them, the women and the men, and if it’s necessary to handcuff some of them – you handcuff them. And the children who are there, it’s the most terrifying and traumatic thing for them, maybe for me too, but especially for them. It’s waking up children and babies, all kinds of toddlers in the middle of the night, and seeing women in their pajamas, without their hijabs or whatever it is. You know, waking them from sleep, and I remember the scared look and that sense of helplessness. 

 

Separating the men and the women inside the house. [The goal] is first of all to control the house, never mind that you also bring inside a ton of filth with all the boots and mud and it all. And then you start sweeping the rooms in pairs or cells. We make sure there’s nobody jumping out at us from some corner, and we take the guy [who was arrested], handcuff him, separate him, blindfold him and put him in the jeep. And if necessary, sometimes, like during compulsory service, I remember that usually there’s a Shin Bet officer with you and he does some kind of initial interrogation. 

 

Interviewer: Of the person?

 

Soldier: The family. He speaks Arabic too and you are mainly supposed to secure him and realize the mission through him. That’s basically the situation. 

 

Interviewer: Does anyone explain to the family anything about what you’re doing?

Soldier: No. 

 

Interviewer: You mean you enter, do everything you just described without saying anything?

Soldier: You maybe communicate in a very basic way. I don’t remember what we said but I think you say: we’re going to take someone for an arrest, or something like that. Or the specific name of the person, [you ask] whether he’s here, bring him, wake him up or we will. You know, something like this, and it’s done very quickly. Besides that, there’s no conversation. 

 

And you see how the people who are inside the house are frightened, usually they’re a clan, usually several generations, it’s multi-generational in there. And you take the person, load him [into the vehicle] and a lot of time we don’t have any clue for why this person, what he did. We are excluded at a certain level – he could be a terrorist, or not. I have no idea, I have no understanding of what’s happening there. And that’s it. 

 

Interviewer: Do you remember the relatives’ responses?

 

Soldiers: I mostly remember the scared looks, even vaguely, maybe I’m trying to repress it. I remember their surprise, their surprised looks, fear, terror, I remember these things to some extent. 

 

Interviewer: Did you search homes?

 

Soldiers: Yes, during compulsory service. I remember a few incidents when you’re searching inside a home and really, you’re taking the entire house apart, of course you don’t put it back in order. It means going through and taking closets apart, just dismantling them physically and rummaging through all sorts of equipment and leaving a mountain of mess behind you, as though a typhoon had passed through.