Israelis Recall a Night of Death and Revenge

Since then, the army has not disputed any of the details in the soldiers' accounts. One opposition member of parliament has called for an investigation, as has an editorial in the Haaretz newspaper. Otherwise, public reaction has been minimal.

Three of the soldiers have now spoken in separate interviews to The Washington Post: Levi and two others who were not willing to disclose their names because they said they were ashamed of what they did and feared they could be harassed for coming forward. This account of what happened that night is based upon their detailed descriptions, supplemented by other interviews and newspaper articles from the time.

All three former soldiers -- two combat engineers and a paratrooper -- are college students in their mid-twenties who look back at their time on active duty with a deep sense of regret and anger. They say they are speaking out to expose what they believe was an unjustified killing operation. One says he is so sickened by what happened that he informed his girlfriend only last weekend and has yet to tell his parents.

"Personally, I feel bad that I didn't speak out that night," said the paratrooper.

"I don't know if I could have stopped it," he added, "but at least I could have tried."

'Sexy Operations'

Shahar Levi is a thin, dark-haired psychology student with an easy smile and intense brown eyes. Sitting in a sidewalk cafe last weekend, he recalled that winning the competition to be accepted into the army's elite Yael unit was the Israeli equivalent of getting into Harvard or Yale, only with an extra layer of patriotic meaning.

"In a society like Israel, if you are serving in a special unit, you are considered to be the salt of the earth," he said. "And if you serve in a special unit, in your résumé you have to take part in a few special missions -- what we called sexy operations."

Early in the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, sexy operations were hard to come by. Levi and his men participated in demolishing houses of suspected terrorists or arresting men wanted by the authorities -- tedious and often unrewarding work. They had started out on such a mission on the night of Feb. 19, 2002, when their bus was diverted to a nearby base.

There they learned that six Israeli soldiers had been gunned down and another wounded two hours earlier at a checkpoint outside the West Bank village of Ein Arik. The soldiers, who had arrived at the checkpoint just a few hours earlier, never had a chance. Palestinian gunmen had positioned themselves just a few yards away and opened fire without warning, cutting down five of the soldiers immediately. Then they entered a nearby building where two soldiers were sleeping, killed one and wounded the other, and escaped.

It was the latest in a series of attacks that had killed 14 soldiers, an Israeli policeman and three civilians over a 10-day period.

Levi's commanding officer emerged from a briefing to tell him and his men that they were going to retaliate. Levi said the purpose of the mission was clear, although he did not remember the word "revenge" being used. Another soldier in his unit said it was.

"He told us six soldiers got killed in a terror attack and we're going to take the life of six Palestinian officers," said the other soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity.