The Israeli army used ‘Hannibal Directive’ to prevent Hamas from taking soldiers captive.
The Israeli military reportedly employed a controversial directive that allowed forces to potentially kill their citizens during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, according to a Haaretz report published on Sunday.
The attacking side, which was the Israeli Air Force, targeted at least three military bases or outposts, according to the report. Also, the military fired intensely at the barrier that divides Gaza from Israel as Palestinian militants retreated to the territory of Gaza with kidnapped Israelis. It was to turn into a ‘killing zone,’ as a collaborator from the Israeli army’s Southern Command disclosed to Haaretz.
After the incident in which Hamas abducted an Israeli civilian and later released a video of him, a directive was disseminated that “not one vehicle can get back to Gaza. ” This meant that even if this vehicle were transporting a kidnapped Israeli civilian or soldier, the latter could be attacked. These are some of the responses of the Israeli military to what it calls the “Hannibal Directive,” which requires the use of any measure to counter the capture of the Israeli forces, even at the expense of the soldiers themselves.
Haaretz’s report is based on documents and first-hand testimonies of some soldiers mid-level and senior army officers. Thus, little is known about the Israelis who were directly targeted, although some statistics suggest that many of the kidnapped people were in contact with Israeli gunfire and, therefore, endangered.
At least 14 Israelis were probably deliberately killed by the Israeli army this week—as much is known, one of which a publicly known case was documented in which the Israeli fire destroyed four of its citizens, which got much publicity.
They are still researching and probing into the occurrence of October 7 and its proceeding incidents. The report, which was expected to be released by the Israeli military soon, says that plans.
Israel, inflicted during the attack on the southern region of the country by Hamas, killed over 1,150 people, including about 30 children and 300 women. Moreover, Palestinians abducted 250 persons; some of them were Israeli civilians and soldiers. About 120 are still in Gaza. Most of them probably died in the later attacks launched by Israeli forces.
A violent toll in proportionate with the casualties inflicted by Israel in Gaza has been of more than thirty-eight thousand Palestinians, of which at least seventeen thousand are children and over ten thousand women. Deal separately with detainees, Human Rights Watch reports that Israeli forces have kidnapped between 4,000 and 5,000 Palestinians from Gaza, and approximately 3,000 of such persons are still in Israeli gulag. About 50 of these detainees have died under torture, according to rights organizations.
The Haaretz report paints a picture that would depict the events of the early morning of the fateful October 7, when most of the Israeli commanders were operating based on bunk information. Another report quoted, “There was crazy hysteria. ” “There were no estimates of the number of people abducted or whereabouts of the army forces. ”
An early use of the Hannibal Directive occurred at 7:On that same day at 18 a.m., an attack through drones was carried out on the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing after a reported kidnapping. The Beit Hanoun crossing and the border military base opposite it were ambushed throughout the day.
Other areas attacked by Israelis are the Reim base, which hosts the divisional headquarters, and the Nahal Oz installation. ‘Anyone making such a decision knew that our combatants in the area could be hit as well,’ an Israeli army source said, Speaking to Haaretz.
Though the exact locations of forces and citizens in the region were unknown, Brigadier-General Avi Rosenfeld, the commander of the Israel army’s Gaza Division, instructed every force to shell mortars toward Gaza. It can be assumed that many people taking refuge in bushes and using open ground at that time could have been in firing distance.
The order was later Cascaded so that no vehicle at all entered Gaza. “Everybody realized by then that such vehicles could be loaded with kidnapped civilians or soldiers,” a Southern Command source said to Haaretz. Although there are no recorded words that urged the hoodlums to attack vehicles that are suspected to be carrying kidnapped victims, it was told in a manner that the listener would grasp.
At least one Israeli civilian was killed in the area due to army attacks. Additionally, many Palestinians, including journalists and civilians near the fence, were killed, with some still missing.
