tie. Through the slit I can see the houses and trees next to us. "The vil-lage appears to have been deserted" says Israel Gossek, the platoon medical orderly. It is only now that we become fully aware that we have met no resistance. There is no doubt - the village has been aban-doned. Suddenly some armed figures appear from nowhere. I raise my rifle.
"Maccabi!" - our password.
We have run into Aryeh Kotzer’s company, which was supposed to attack the village from the other side. The village is in our hands.
In front of us is a house with the lights on. Bulli, Nachman, and I jump out to investigate. We provide Nachman with cover and he storms in. There is nobody in the house, but a petroleum lamp is burning: a sign that the inhabitants and the fighters have only just fled. We quickly look through the cupboards and discover some boxes of Italian ammunition.
We go back to our vehicle. A new task is already waiting for us there. We are to return to the entrance to the village and secure the road in the direction of Ramie. We swear. What a prospect: yet again we have to hang around a sandy position while our comrades are gathering souvenirs.
We repair the road block, set up the machine gun, and build a lookout, just as the sun is rising. We can only look through the few houses in the immediate area. We break open the doors one after the other. Here the houses are much prettier and cleaner than the ones we know from Arab Hulda or Deir Muheisin. Almost everywhere we discover military equipment and ammunition.
Another problem is food. We know from experience that one can eat well in Arab villages. The chickens of Deir Muheisin are already legendary, and quite often, when we are sitting down to sardines and bully beef, someone will say "Come on, let’s raid an Arab village."
We quickly organize four hens and about twenty pigeons. While I stand in the lookout post, keeping an eye on nearby Ramie, and stop-ping vehicles, my comrades prepare the meals.
For breakfast I eat a roast pigeon. We are not used to them yet. The outside of the bird is charred and the meat is almost raw in the middle.
Someone relieves me at the lookout. I go for a sleep. My comrades have found a bicycle and take turns riding around the village. They