There were many things having to do with deterrence. There was a kidnapping, so we had to make our presence felt. Let’s say there was an incident in Hawara, and then one of the company commanders asks the battalion commander “What’s this mission? what am I supposed to be looking for?" He (the battalion commander) says to him, “Demonstrate sovereignty.” They didn’t see suspects and didn’t identify them and didn’t know what to look for, but we must show that we are here. This is clear. I don’t think the brigade is trying to conceal it or anything like that. Right after a kidnapping incident takes place, suddenly the following night there’s an entire database of Hamas operatives and people whose homes they want to map – it’s these contingency plans. The officers from the brigade [also] talk: “Yes, we hit them hard, we’re going to destroy Awarta tonight,” things like that… It’s really vulgar. “We hit them hard, there isn’t a house we didn’t pass through.” During Operation Brother’s Keeper, they arrested tons of Hamas operatives, but there were also villages specifically identified with Hamas, that are allegedly associated. They also just went into random homes claiming, “You’re identified with the Hamas.”

Which villages?Tell, a village near Nablus, adjacent. They’re identified and there are a lot of Hamas operatives there. So there was really one night when they went into every home. In Awarta and Beit Furiq too. They mapped pretty much the entire village, lots of places.

Are mappings written in the operations journal? Yes. Mapping, two identifications, two targets – executed without any unusual circumstances. That’s the report, and then claims come in that they destroyed, broke things, entered in an inappropriate fashion. Nobody cares, it’s mapping.

During mappings for Operation Brother’s Keeper, stories arose of damaging property, guys taking souvenirs? It wasn’t within the bounds of taking souvenirs. It wasn’t that a soldier pocketed something, nothing like that. The way I see it, that’s worse since the establishment confiscates things it isn’t supposed to confiscate. We received an entire list of claims from the DCO (Palestinian District Coordination Office), from the Palestinian police specifically, case by case, every night – the name of the homeowner and what was taken from him. Officially, computers, cars were taken, all kinds of things that are considered terror funds. Then there were claims of jewelry, watches, things like that. The DCO asked to look into what went on, [what] was taken. The DCO police officer must clarify that if it was taken, it’s apparently justified, even though I know for a fact that not everything is reported. The reports included the confiscation of funds, the confiscation of a few vehicles that were equivalent to terror funds. And then the police went to the officer with this list and asked him, “Can you check this for me? This data, what happened; the Palestinians say gold and jewelry was stolen from them.” And then the officer says to him, “Listen bro, they took…” [He] whispered to him. “The computers and the magnetic storage media are considered operational devices, things connected to Hamas and their charitable organizations. They took jewelry because it’s equivalent in value to certain funds, they said there’s supposed to be 7,000 dollars worth of terror funds in this house, and we didn’t reach that amount because we didn’t empty their wallets, so we’ll take something else.”

What did they do with it? Nothing. He just said to him, “I marked it and did the job.” I don’t know how they managed to cover their asses. Soldiers don’t pocket thousands of dollars – it’s not – and it’s also really serious forces that were in there, but they took it. They tried to change the rules. I don’t know how they did it and how they smuggled the money and the possessions.

And what did they do with the possessions? If the objective was to reach the money that is considered terror funds, how they did it legally, I don’t know. But that same night it was super operational: “OK, there isn’t enough money in their safe so we’ll take something else,” and I of course am not familiar with this from the report, I’m aware of the confiscation of vehicles, money and computers, media, flash drives, telephones and all kinds of things like that. I saw a claim that silver jewelry worth thousands of dollars was stolen, stuff like that, so I wrote: “Not aware,” even though I definitely heard the officer and he was involved in this operation.