The whole story of the Gefen [post] was that we were a company, and sometimes we’d be moved to different posts, but everything was more or less in the same area. At Gefen itself, there was no contact with the Palestinian population. Sometimes they would break into the hothouses and we’d see or not see, but there was no actual friction. Certainly nothing connected to terrorist activity. Before the intifada, the Gaza Strip was absolutely quiet. But there were the hothouses belonging to the settlement. I don’t remember exactly where. There was the matter of the fence, which was really horrible. People would come and want to enter, and there were set times [for opening], and people would run, and whoever was late would not be allowed in.

This was before the [second] intifada? Yes, before the intifada. At the Gefen post.

Palestinians arriving in the morning to work at the hothouses had to undergo inspection? Yes, we would either guard the inspection or carry it out ourselves.

When you were guarding, who did the inspection itself, the [settlement’s] civil security official? He was at the ID card depositing. They would go in, and they’d get the cards back in the evening [when leaving]. The thing was that Palestinians who were late would run and not be let in. There was this set time for entry and the gate is simply closed in your face, you don’t let them in and the Palestinians lose a day’s work.

Who decided? The civil security official.

Around 9 – 9.15 A.M.? Yes. A bit later, don’t remember exactly. There were hundreds of workers entering. It’s not a problem to know exactly which hothouses they were. They were huge, and hundreds of workers were going into them.