We take down houses. Everything over there is in ruins, but the skeleton of the building is still standing — [so we] knock it down, so there's absolutely nothing left, a pile of rubble. It's really become like a day job: You get up in the morning, get the locations (a structure designated by the military as a point of interest). "One, two, three, four, five" — this platoon, "six, seven, eight, nine, ten" — another platoon.

Every day?Every day, except if we run out of explosives. And there was also a week–long ceasefire in the middle.

[Is there] a required quota of say, ten houses per platoon per day? [Per] platoon, around five to seven. The goal is as many as possible. That's simply the mission.

Could it, within a week, go up to 50 homes per platoon?Yes, it could be 40–50. On days we did have ammunition, it was a matter of half an hour per house. first thing, [When you blow up a house], the commander officer, or squad commander we had, arrives. He goes in, looks at the house, marks where to put explosives. We load the Hummer, go to the house, unload and put it (the explosives) down where the markings are, connect the circuit, which basically means connecting all the mines to a central circuit so everything goes off all at once. We'd do several buildings in two beats a day. You connect everything together, back off to some safe spot, and blow it up. Our mission was only that. We back away 300–400 meters from the site where we sat with no [security] accompaniment. The place is, seemingly, completely empty. We weren't told too much, we didn't ask too much. Let's say that the narrative was [that we were demolishing] neighborhoods that overlook communities inside Israel, the kibbutzim, etc., on the ridge, the high ground, and they wanted to leave no points of control in this area. They also mentioned a security zone and stuff like that. Towards the end of our time there, they started clearing this space to install a [military] outpost in places where we blew up houses. I don't know what ended up happening with that.

Who talked about a security zone?It's not like some commander comes and says: "This is your mission," but if you ask the officer why these houses are being blown up, then this is the stuff they'd talk about. If anyone needed a reason, this was it.

Was there a systematic vector of advancement?You get the area and clear it. We finish a place, and a few days later, we're in the next place. It started with the houses that overlook the border. In the end, the neighborhood was no longer standing.