Soldier: In Ramallah, a friend of mine was on an ambush – there’s the Beit El settlement and above it, the Jilazoun refugee camp. Once a night or two, guys at Jilazoun send out kids who throw a Molotov cocktail in the direction of Beit El. None of them ever really reach Beit El. It was always kids throwing, and for a while we would lay ambushes there, and once in a while a Molotov cocktail would be hurled at one of our forces, and they’d be chased. One of my friends was sitting at Beit El in a sort of marksman’s post, and a kid came out and threw a Molotov cocktail, and he shot him. The moment they light up the bottle, they’re free game.

 

Interviewer: Did the kid mean to throw it at the force?

 

Soldier: No, he was the furthest away, he wasn’t endangering my friend who shot him with his marksman’s rifle.

 

Interviewer: And he killed him?

 

Soldier: Yes.

 

Interviewer: How old was the kid?

 

Soldier: Young, 16 years old. There was a Molotov cocktail being thrown from Jilazoun to Beit El every night, but not in a way that it even reached the settlement or crossed the fence. They weren’t Molotov cocktails being aimed at a person’s body or at a vehicle. Nothing. They were stupid kids who felt like protesting.

 

Interviewer: Do you remember when this happened?

 

Soldier: July-August 2008. We had lots of X’s (Note: An 'X' on the side of a soldier’s rifle, indicating the number of people he’s killed) at that time. The battalion loved it. There was an ambush around there where a kid coming up with a Molotov cocktail had his leg blown off. They laid an ambush exactly at that spot. Kids came, the soldiers were there, the kids lit a bottle, and they were shot in the leg.

 

Interviewer: At what range were they standing, when, you say, they were throwing the bottle towards Beit El?

 

Soldier: A few hundred meters. In an open space between the village and Beit El.