Once in a while we'd go to Ya'abad to blow up TV antennas, to show that the Israeli army is here and the Israeli army means trouble. That there's a boss.

What was the point of such a mission?No idea. Routine activity. I never really understood why and for whom this was any good.

Weren't you informed of the purpose of your mission?That is something that a [squad] commander, for example, would not dare do. The company commander more or less controls the mission himself, much more than a lower-ranking commander, so he can afford to do such things.

Is it something that would also come from above, go out to the village, blow up antennas?Not from above, but the company commander would do this. The battalion commander, too.

What do you mean by blowing up antennas?Shooting at them. Not explosive charges. Something solid. Or street lamps. Just for the hell of it. Say, there was some action in some village, I forgot the name, the guys came there and found nothing. They were informed of the presence of armed militants. So to flush these out, which is really important, there was some sort of shooting eventually. They simply spray-shot all the flower pots of the neighborhood, and then fire was opened at them and they could detect the sources.