Those checkposts. . . it's the same story of undue delays. You see dozens of ambulances waiting in line to be let through.

Were there confrontations?Yes. Especially with the more level-headed guys, I remember. It happened to everyone. There were some bad stories even back then. There was one guy who seized the cell phone of one of the Palestinians he detained because he saw him talking on it and they're not supposed to be talking on their cell phones while we run a checkpost because they might be informing the village about this and disrupt our mission. So one guy grabbed the cell phone of the guy who was talking and it just rang, it was a woman asking to speak to her Mohammad and he (the soldier) said, "He can't speak, he's dead." That was one of our guys, and, later, the company commander yelled at him that this was way out of line. There was also a story about guys getting into a (Palestinian) vehicle and driving it for some meters, and that, too, got a chilly response from the commanders.

They simply got in the car and took a spin, for fun?Yes.

And what was the reaction?That's a no-no.

From the battalion commander?Yes.