The more years pass in my service, the more aggressive the enforcement (of restricting fishing areas in Gaza) becomes. This means you’re always opening fire, talk less, don’t get close for fear of a fisherman turning into a terrorist. So you open fire overhead and in his vicinity. As soon as the bullet is in the water, you can't predict its ballistics precisely. There are spirals and the bullet moves to the right, so you are supposed to shoot to the right of the boat so that the bullet will skip further away to the right of the boat. That does not always happen. You try to aim in front of the boat’s prow so they‘ll realize we really mean business and nearly hit it.

Did you shoot in front of the prow?Sure, all the time. It’s against the rules, an unofficial practice.

It’s against the rules because…?Not that you’re not supposed to aim there, but you’re not supposed to shoot in a way that the bullets are likely to skip on board. You have to shoot to the right of the boat and not at the prow.

That’s official naval regulation?Yes. That’s the regulation for opening fire near a vessel.

But you know you’re violating regulations.Yes.

It’s something that is done.Absolutely something that is done.

Did it ever come up in inquiries you held?Not that I remember. The more aggressive the actions became in routine work, fewer inquiries were made. Everything becomes reality, the norm, routine, and that’s one of the things I noticed on my reserve duty. In the past, inquiries would be held and now in reserves I discovered that not only is there no investigation, but no one asks you even unofficially what happened.