We made an arrest during Operation Brother’s Keeper that really confused me about the situation there. The family was apparently linked to Hamas somehow. They had lots of pictures of shahids (an Arabic word used to connote martyrs) on the walls and green flags in the house and stuff like that. We went in, they didn’t open the door right away, so we started throwing stun grenades outside the house so they’d open. At some point they opened, we arrested the father really quickly, and since they didn’t open the door quickly, we started a search to see if they hid something. And then stone throwing started outside the house and [there were] photographers and stuff like that.

Throwing stones at whom? At the soldiers outside? Yes, exactly. So they (the soldiers) threw tear gas grenades and afterwards some of the gas got into the house. There’s the father, two sisters and the mother. One of the sisters was pregnant and the mother is elderly, and the gas got inside the house. We were pretty used to coughing and stuff, but they (the family) were really choking. The pregnant girl, I called her into the kitchen, me - I'm with my face covered, weapon, vest and helmet and everything, and a surreal scene ensues in which I pour her a glass of water, and she doesn’t know what’s going on. Then we called her (the mother), telling her in broken Arabic to bring her pregnant daughter some onion (inhaling the scent of chopped onion can help ease the effect of tear gas). Because you see a pregnant woman choking from tear gas, you don’t care, she could be from ISIS for all I care. Then it becomes even more surreal when the mom comes in, doesn’t understand why a soldier is letting her do this in the middle of an arrest. She comes to get an onion and slice it, so she pulls a knife out from the drawer. Now, if you’re standing in a room in an Arab house and a knife is being pulled out – something went wrong. So of course I cocked my weapon at her, and within seconds I started screaming at her to drop the knife, and she was confused. Eventually they opened it [the onion] with their hands. But it’s these types of crazy situations that made me realize that there’s no such thing as a humane or enlightened occupation or anything of the sort.