Second Anniversary of October 7th – remembering the horror of Israel’s ‘Hannibal Directive’

Two years on from October 7th, it’s important to reflect upon the horror of Israel’s ‘Hannibal Directive’.

The truth of just how violent the IDF are prepared to be, not just to Palestinians but their own people as well is shielded behind offical narrative denial and accusations of anti-semitism by any who make them, but this report on ABC strips bare the allegations against the IDF on October 7th that they opened fire intentionally upon their own citizens to prevent them from being kidnapped.

It’s called the ‘Hannibal Directive…

Israeli forces accused of killing their own citizens under the ‘Hannibal Directive’ during October 7 chaos

“Hannibal at Erez, dispatch a Zik [attack drone],” came the command on October 7.

Those words, reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz in July, confirm what many Israelis have feared since the Hamas attacks on October 7 in southern Israel.

Israeli forces have killed their own citizens.

Israeli authorities say more than 800 civilians and around 300 soldiers were killed on October 7.

A number of Israeli hostages have since died in Gaza.

Israelis are still reeling from the horror and pain of the Hamas-led terror attack, which was the bloodiest single day in Israel’s history.

But the Israeli military is coming under increasing pressure to reveal just how many of their own citizens were killed by Israeli soldiers, pilots and police in the confusion of the Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities.

Survivors and relatives have been asking not just “what went wrong”, but whether the military invoked the controversial — and supposedly rescinded — “Hannibal Directive”.

What is the Hannibal Directive?

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the directive was named at random by a computer program, but Hannibal was the famous Carthaginian general who took poison rather than be captured by the Romans.

The doctrine, written in 1986 in response to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, gave permission for Israeli forces to fire on enemies holding their comrades hostage — even at risk to those hostages.

Its authors said the directive did not allow captives to be killed, but critics say that over time an interpretation spread through the military that it was better to kill comrades than to allow their capture.

“That is legally wrong and morally wrong and ethically wrong, it’s wrong on all accounts.”

In 2011, Hamas successfully used an Israeli hostage to secure a major prisoner exchange, swapping one Israeli soldier, tank gunner Gilad Shalit, for more than 1,000 prisoners, including the current Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar.

After October 7, there were some testimonies from Israeli civilians and military personnel that Israeli forces responding to the Hamas attack killed their own citizens.

Nevertheless, many Israelis and supporters of Israel condemned anyone who suggested it had occurred, before more testimonies and Israeli media reports confirmed it was true.

The IDF has not confirmed or denied a version of the Hannibal directive was applied on October 7, only saying it is one of many things from that day under investigation.

In response to questions from the ABC, the Israeli military provided a statement saying: “The IDF is currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas.”

“Questions of this kind will be looked into at a later stage.”

‘This was a mass Hannibal’

In July, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed commanders in the IDF gave the order to fire on troops who had been captured by Hamas at three separate locations, explicitly referencing the Hannibal Directive.

One former Israeli officer, Air Force Colonel Nof Erez, told a Haaretz podcast the directive was not specifically ordered but was “apparently applied” by responding aircrews.

Panicked, operating without their normal command structure and unable to coordinate with ground forces, they fired on vehicles returning to Gaza, knowing they were likely carrying hostages.

“This was a mass Hannibal. It was tons and tons of openings in the fence, and thousands of people in every type of vehicle, some with hostages and some without,” Colonel Erez said.

Air force pilots described to Yedioth Ahronot newspaper the firing of “tremendous” amounts of ammunition on October 7 at people attempting to cross the border between Gaza and Israel.

“Twenty-eight fighter helicopters shot over the course of the day all of the ammunition in their bellies, in renewed runs to rearm. We are talking about hundreds of 30-millimetre cannon mortars and Hellfire missiles,” reporter Yoav Zeitoun said.

“The frequency of fire at the thousands of terrorists was enormous at the start, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow their attacks and carefully choose the targets.”

Tank officers have also confirmed they applied their own interpretation of the directive when firing on vehicles returning to Gaza, potentially with Israelis on board.

“My gut feeling told me that they [soldiers from another tank] could be on them,” tank captain Bar Zonshein told Israel’s Channel 13.

Captain Zonshein is asked: “So you might be killing them with that action? They are your soldiers.”

Investigative journalist Ronen Bergman wrote for Yedioth Ahronot newspaper that the military had enacted the Hannibal Directive at midday on October 7.

“The IDF instructed all its fighting units in practice to follow the ‘Hannibal Directive’, although without clearly mentioning this explicit name,” he said.

“The instruction is to stop ‘at all costs’ any attempt by Hamas terrorists to return to Gaza, using language very similar to the original ‘Hannibal Directive’, despite repeated assurances by the security establishment that the procedure has been cancelled.”

Bergman’s investigation found 70 vehicles were destroyed by Israeli aircraft and tanks to prevent them being driven into Gaza, killing everyone inside.

“It is not clear at this point how many of the abductees were killed due to the activation of this [Hannibal] order on October 7,” he wrote.

…if the IDF were prepared to target their own civilians in this manner, what the Christ do they allow against the Palestinians?

The disproportionate response by Israel to October the 7th has created war crimes that are technical breeches of genocide, murdered so many Palestinians it’s difficult to know the true number and have committed acts of violence so obscene it’s difficult to list them.

John Minto has written a devastating critique of many of the lies Israel has spawned to justify their violence…

• Most of the victims were either Israeli soldiers and police or army reservists. One analysis concluded “A total of 1,269 individuals were affected, predominantly military males aged 18-25”
• Many Israeli civilians were killed by Israeli military commanders adopting the “Hannibal directive” whereby it is better to kill or risk killing Israeli war captives than having them taken hostage or prisoner. Orders to attack any vehicle heading to Gaza meant hundreds of cars were attacked, killing hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis alike
• After the resistance fighters broke out from Gaza there was a “second wave” of people who came through the fence and it appears this group were responsible for most of the war crimes committed on that day rather than fighters from the highly-disciplined resistance groups
• There was no widespread sexual assault committed by the Palestinian resistance fighters against Israeli women and children as claimed by Israel
• There were no beheaded Israeli babies, no foetuses ripped from slaughtered mothers, no children raped – all claims made by the Israeli propaganda machine
• Israel has taken more than 9,000 counter hostages (held without charge or trial) from Gaza and the Occupied West Bank since October 7^th
• Human Shields – While the Israeli army has always stated that human shields are “a key pillar of Hamas’s terror operations”, it has not provided credible proof for its allegations which are denied by Hamas. Israel repeatedly pushes this lie as a way of justifying the horrific civilian death toll from its indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas such as schools, hospitals etc
• Attacks on Aid convoys. Here is a UN envoy report on the lack of evidence Israel has provided to back up its claims.

…the IDF have been caught out so many times lying, I just don’t think anyone believes anything they have to say.

It is no good pretending that the IDF are not a murderous death squad who celebrate the psychological damage their violence causes.

• The shooting of children by snipers in the head.
• The widespread sexual torture inside Israeli detention centres.
• The pinning of soft toys as trophies from Palestinian children that the bulldozers use when flattening homes.
• The dropping of military grade weaponry on Palestinians in tents, hospitals, homes, schools with the false justification that Hamas was using human shields so shooting through civilians is somehow moral.
• The heavy uranium munitions used and the toxic waste the bombing campaign has forever poisoned GAZA with.
• The brutal zionist settlers violence in the West Bank.
• The use of hunger as a weapon.
• The group punishment mentality.

All of it adds up to a people whose own tragedy of the Holocaust has warped and mutated them into defending what they are doing in Gaza and the West Bank.

The disgust anyone with a conscience feels at what the Israeli Government is doing forces any moral being to turn away from any cultural, economic or academic  interaction with Israel.

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.