There was this other thing there. They used to catch the Palestinian illegal aliens and make them run to the checkpoint. There was the Shavei Shomeron checkpoint about 2-3 kilometers away, and they had to take them there, so they’d make them do runs to there, like you do in basic training.

They were made to carry stuff? The soldiers would run with gear, and the guys would just make them run to the checkpoint, by the side of the road, road number 5.

How did that work? They’d run, no resistance. Young guys going to work, they’d run 2 kilometers with them to the checkpoint, then return to their ambushes. I don’t know why they did it.

Were there commanders doing this too? There were hardly any commanders out there. The squad commanders didn’t want to get down to stuff like that. They’d sit at the checkpoint for a bit, but less intensely, they did less than the regular soldiers. It was a period of about two weeks, something like that.

Were you there when they were made to run? Yes. Not only running, we’d… Naturally, it all depended on who was out there. When we were on a mission, too, we’d go out without a commander, and it depended on which four guys it was.