Israelis Recall a Night of Death and Revenge

It was over within minutes. The soldiers were bused back to a nearby Jewish settlement, where they were fed and congratulated by residents and by their commanders. They were also mildly reprimanded for not checking the remains of the hut to see how many dead Palestinians were inside.

Meanwhile, to the north, a special paratroop unit launched a similar operation against three checkpoints outside the Balata refugee camp. The soldiers were supposed to open fire on all three outposts simultaneously, but at one checkpoint the men opened fire prematurely after an unsuspecting policeman ventured too close to their position.

"He was 10 meters away and he was for sure dead," recalled the paratrooper who would not allow his name to be used. "He never shot."

The soldiers rushed the checkpoint, hurling grenades over a wall, then stormed a small house where the policemen had been sleeping and opened fire. The paratrooper said at least five policemen were killed, and possibly six. Another policeman was killed at the second checkpoint, while the third turned out to be deserted. Wounded policemen were dispatched with additional shots to the body or head, the paratrooper said, to ensure that they were dead.

Afterward, the paratroops' officers played a videotape of the attack that had been recorded at an observation post. "Everybody could recognize themselves," the paratrooper said. "They were very pleased."

Moral Conflicts

That morning both sides counted their dead and pronounced their judgment. Several armed Palestinian groups asserted responsibility for the attack on Ein Arik. Marwan Barghouti, a senior West Bank leader, noting that army checkpoints were places where Palestinians were often humiliated by soldiers, hailed the attack as "a response to the acts of slaughter that the Israelis do and an expression of Palestinians' frustration over the occupation."

As Israel buried its six dead soldiers, Brig. Gen. Gershon Yitzhak, commander of the West Bank, said the targeting of the policemen was a justifiable act of war. "This shall not be a one-sided war," he told reporters at a briefing. "We will react toward anyone in any place necessary. The purpose of the operation was to strike at anyone who is in any way involved in the dispatch of terrorists."

Israeli analysts said the army had acted swiftly to restore the morale of its soldiers, badly shaken by the Ein Arik attack, and to reestablish a sense of deterrence. "As a commander, you want to immediately calm any feeling of panic and restore a sense of confidence in your people," said Hirsh Goodman, senior research associate with the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. "There is also a dimension of revenge -- no one might say it, but everyone would understand it."

But the war continued to escalate. Two weeks later a lone Palestinian sniper mowed down seven soldiers and three Jewish settlers and escaped.

For three of the soldiers involved in the attacks on the police, the elation did not last long. The combat engineer said he was so upset he spoke to his father about it the next day. "I knew I did something very bad," he recalled. "My dad tried to convince me to go tell someone. I didn't want to do it. I thought the patriotic thing was not to tell."

It was only after they left the army that all three men began to voice their misgivings. Even so, they say their loyalty to other members of their unit -- most of whom still believe the operation was proper and justified -- prevented them from speaking out.

"It took me two years until I got enough distance from the military time," the engineer said. "It's like we know we did something bad, but the idea of going out and telling it seems like a bad thing because you're going to hurt the unit."

Avichay Sharon, a former army sergeant who is spokesman for Breaking the Silence, said the pattern was a familiar one. "When you're inside the system, you are kind of blind," he said. "The moral conflicts and dilemmas are a part of your life, and if you stop and think about them, you might not get up the next morning. Even after you leave the army, it takes a long time to look in the mirror and say, 'Well, I was a monster for three years.' "

"It's true these guys are the exception" in speaking out, he added. "It's not just that you're criticizing the system -- you're also criticizing yourself. It's one of the hardest things you can do as a human being."

Special correspondent Samuel Sockol contributed to this report.