Testimonies
Searching and Capturing of Houses
hot and cold
Name: *** Rank: first sergeant Unit: Nachal elite unite Description: On such extended operations, searches involve actually occupying the territory. In Jenin we did this by breaking holes in walls. Someone would stand there with a 5-kg. hammer.
Everything was done 'cold', not 'hot'?
'Hot' is more fun. I'll give you an example of 'cold'. Someone stands there with a 5-kg hammer or a chisel or the like, begins to take apart the wall. As soon as there's a little hole, you'd stick a barrel of a gun through to the other side, so they'd know not to mess with it.
And shoot?
No. Continue drilling, enter the home. Separate the men and the women. Check the men's IDs. Pass the numbers on to the Shabak, and on to the next house. Give out candy to the children and some tuna cans if they're hungry. We had candy in our gear throughout the operation. That's as far as searches are concerned.
So you proceed straight through the broken wall to the next home?
Yes.
What do you do in the houses? In between?
In houses where soldiers stay overnight they drive the people out and wire up all kinds of booby traps so we won't be reached. A kind of miniature army position is created, with guard positions and an alert team. A small outpost. We didn't do this often, only on extended operations. It happened in Operation Defensive Shield, just a few times. Usually the inhabitants would be assembled in one room, all the people of the house, men on one side, women and children on the other. Sometimes they were made to stay that way for several hours, other times for a few days, as the need arose. Sometimes we'd conduct a 'hot' search, and that was a bit more complex because we had to remove everyone from all around. In Jenin there are many houses built of mud – now there's nothing left there in the refugee camp – and apparently this is a very strong type of construction, much more so than concrete, highly recommended for any housing. Sometimes when we detonated explosive charges there, instead of blowing up the wall they made the roof fly up, for the roofs are made of tin so they'd fly up in the air and the wall would remain intact. We had to place some more explosives so that the wall would collapse too. That's how we'd move from house to house.
How do you choose whether to make a 'cold' or a 'hot' break-in?
Whenever possible, we prefer the 'cold' version.
What's the criterion?
A relatively thin wall.
What does a thin wall look like? No, that is much easier to tell. A thin wall is made of plaster. It is very thin, you can sense it. A thin wall is not made of mud and rock. It's thin. We always preferred the 'cold' break-in. Naturally this was under the command of our first officer-in-charge.
What are the results of a 'hot' break-in on the ground?
Insane destruction. Nothing remains intact in such a house. Nothing remains in a room that is blasted. There was a case in Ramallah where we entered the home of a high-ranking official of the Palestinian Authority. This was quite at the beginning, and we didn't really know how much explosives to use, so we placed a brick explosive. There were two doors facing each other there, and from the blast, one door collapsed, the other flew against the wall and stuck to it, inside the house. All the stairwell windows were shattered, the walls cracked, everything inside this house was wrecked including the refrigerator, the door of which was torn off. Total destruction.
All because of one brick explosive?
Just one. Yes.
And after this experience with the brick explosives you switched to finger explosives? Yes, definitely.
How many fingers?
It's trial-and-error. Some bolted doors are held with better hinges, some with less. There are iron doors.
Why is a 'hot' break-in necessary? No one home?
Yes. No one opened, and if you need to search the house, you break-in 'hot'.
After the destruction of a 'hot' break-in, you're on a weapons-search.
Yes.
What's left there?
Everything. Just messed up. A lot.
Did you run into any looting?
I don't know if you'd call it looting, taking knives and such. I mean, there are knives in a terrorist's home, sometimes decorated daggers with all kinds of Arabic calligraphy, as far as we're concerned these are extreme Islamists, and we cannot have a terrorist owning such knives, so we'd take them. We'd take them along to our base - some of us would, in their gear.
Where did such a case take place?
I don't remember. I recall many such instances, can't tell you whether it was Jenin, or Tulkarem or the like. I can't tell you exactly.
And vandalism?
Not intentional. Sure, we destroyed property but only for operational purposes. I have destroyed refrigerators, closets, when you're on a 'hot' break-in and have to do a quick search for weapons or hideout entrances, you work quickly. You turn the whole house inside out. If there's a closet full of clothes you need to empty it, to see what's behind inside, and you don't have the time to start folding everything back up again. So for operational needs, we did destroy property. Not intentional vandalism.
Searching and Capturing of Houses
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