Routine security measures involve patrols along the Gaza shoreline. We interact less with the civilian population because we are farther out, and the Dabur vessels carry out most of the work. They locate problematic fishermen, ones who don’t respect the military’s rules. When we were in Gaza, the fishermen there toss out these sort of floats that have fishing hooks attached. They’ve got a delineated zone in which they’re allowed to fish, and sometimes they leave that zone and toss these floats in places they aren’t allowed to go. And then what happens? The Navy comes around and shoots these things, sinks them, because you don’t want to allow a situation in which they feel like it’s OK to go there, toss their floats and leave. You want them to stay within a sector that’s very close to the shore. At that time they were allowed three nautical miles. That was the rule, but they’d go beyond it and toss floats and go away back in [to their bounds], we would locate the floats and sink them.

Your ship fired at the floats? Yes. With a MAG. You see a float – usually these were pieces of styrofoam or yellow jerry cans. You come closer till you’re 50, 100 meters from it. The ship either stops or keeps moving, and you fire at it till it sinks.

These were directions handed down from above, or this was a way for soldiers to have fun? First of all, these are the orders – but it is fun, no doubt about it – it’s a way out of the routine. You’re sailing for few days, doing nothing but keeping watch. But we never opened fire when we were not allowed to, just for the fun of it. Where we needed to shot, we shot, and the soldiers enjoyed it.

The order to sink the floats was so that they wouldn’t get used to being allowed to do that? Yes, yes. Absolutely, only to keep them from fishing. There’s no doubt that 99% of the people there were innocent fishermen, despite the fact that they were pushing the limits of where they were allowed to be. On the other hand, the amount of fish in the area in which they’re allowed to fish is very depleted, while in the water where the Navy is, there are lots of fish, because nobody fishes there.