In any operation that I ever saw, heard or did, someone always left with something. It was a given that people would leave with things. When I said it’s not okay, they looked at me funny. The battalion communications officer had a picture in his room of a boy in a Hamas uniform holding an M-16 rifle in his hand, he took it from a house where he made an arrest. It had no end. Everywhere. Just like in Operation Cast Lead, when they always took cigarettes.
During arrests and entry into houses in Hebron, too?Yes. Small things you can stick in your pocket. One of the soldiers in the battalion commander’s tactical team had a knife he found in a house in Hebron. Instead of confiscating, they put it in their vest. It became the norm.
Did the officers know about it?Yes. Definitely. Like I said, the battalion communications officer took something, that means the battalion commander knew.