A single person is walking along the road.
"Two hundred meters - enemy on the road - one bullet - fire!" All thirty rifles fire as one. The man stands there for a moment. Then he breaks into a run. Hell! All the bullets missed their target.
But his fate is sealed. The rifles fire like crazy. Bullet. Bullet. Another bullet. The machine gun coughs. At least one hundred and fifty rounds are fired.
The man is lying on the ground.
* * *
A truck comes to take the wounded man to HQ. He is lying on the road, surrounded by the curious. The wounded man writhes in pain, cries, shouts. His right leg has been hit by several machine gun bullets. The medic tries to stop the bleeding. There is not much chance of saving his leg. It will probably have to be amputated.
"Why is he being treated? He is an Arab after all," shouts a short man. "Wounded is wounded," says the medic censoriously. "All over the world wounded prisoners are treated."
"Don’t be childish. Who cares if he dies?"
"Is that also a human being? This stinking Arab?"
The medic takes no notice. He moves quickly and bandages the wound.
"What he needs is a bullet," announces Kebab. And plays with the safety catch of his rifle. Kebab is tall and dark, his voice always hoarse, and his eyes in continual movement. Nobody knows exactly what he was in civilian life.
"Enough," Sancho interjects. "We are not savages."
"What does that mean?" objected the short man. "What did the Arabs do in Yasur? And in the Hayotzek foundry? Are they not slaughterers? They slaughter and we slaughter as well. That is all!" "Shut your mouth," growled the commander from some distance. "Prisoners are not killed because we need to extract information from them. Is that clear?" And that is now really clear to all.
The medic completes his work. The blood-covered man is loaded into the jeep. The medic sits next to him. Someone else has to help by holding the wounded man.
"You there!" the commander remembers me. "You have this decoration don’t you, this boil on your bottom. Get up and have yourself treated." Everyone laughs.