Add καὶ ἤρχοντο πρὸς αὐτόν, and kept coming unto Him, before and said or kept saying. The imperfect denotes the successive acts of homage of the soldiers as they came up one after the other.
They smote Him with their hands (ἐδίδουν αὐτῷ ῥαπίσματα).
Literally, kept giving Him blows with their hands. See on Joh 18:22.