Hannibal Directive
Updated 2024-07-25
Hannibal Directive Explained The Hannibal Directive (Hebrew: נוהל חניבעל) (or “Procedure” or “Protocol”) is a controversial procedure that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have used follow to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces. It was introduced in 1986, after a number abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and the subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of directive has never been published and until 2003 Israeli military censorship even forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times. At one time the formulation was that “the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces.”
The Hannibal directive have, at times, apparently existed in two different versions, one top-secret written version, accessible only to the upper echelon of the IDF, and one “oral law” version for division commanders and lower levels. In the latter versions, “by all means” was often interpreted literally, as in “an IDF soldier was “better dead than abducted”. In 2011, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz stated the directive does not permit killing IDF soldiers.
The Hannibal directive has not prevented the capture of a single Israeli soldier. Among the 11 Israelis involved in the seven reported Hannibal incidents, only one soldier (Gilad Shalit) survived. In his case the declaration of Hannibal occurred too late to have any influence on the cause of events. There is however only one case where Israeli forces have been officially confirmed to be directly responsible for an Israeli death. https://everything.explained.today/Hannibal_Directive/
Hannibal Directive – Wikipedia The Hannibal Directive (Hebrew: נוהל חניבעל; also Hannibal Procedure or Hannibal Protocol) is a controversial procedure used by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces. The directive was revoked in 2016, to be replaced by a new directive of unknown content. It was introduced in 1986, after a number of abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of the directive was not published, and until 2003, Israeli military censorship forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times. At one time, the formulation was that “the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Directive
2024-07-07 Israeli Newspaper Confirms IDF Employed ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7 The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday that Israel’s military repeatedly employed a protocol known as the “Hannibal Directive” during the October 7 Hamas-led attack in an attempt to prevent the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers—even if it meant putting the lives of army captives and civilians at risk.
Haaretz found based on documents and interviews with soldiers and senior Israeli officers that Hannibal—an operational order developed in 1986 that “directs the use of force to prevent soldiers being taken into captivity” by enemy militants—was used “at three army facilities infiltrated by Hamas, potentially endangering civilians as well.”
During the first hours of the Hamas-led attack, according to Haaretz, Israeli soldiers were given an order: “Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza.”
“At this point, the IDF was not aware of the extent of kidnapping along the Gaza border, but it did know that many people were involved,” the newspaper continued. “Thus, it was entirely clear what that message meant, and what the fate of some of the kidnapped people would be.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-hannibal-directive
2024-01-17 Briahna Joy Gray: Is Israel KILLING HOSTAGES? Inside the IDF’s Reported Oct 7 ‘Hannibal Directive’ Briahna Joy Gray delivers a radar surrounding media coverage of the Israel-Hamas War. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziC95CJ8lU0
2023-12-13 If Israel Used a Controversial Procedure Against Its Citizens, We Need to Talk About It Now Did Israel implement the so-called Hannibal Directive – which allows the military to endanger a soldier to prevent them from being kidnapped – at the hostage-taking incident in Be’eri on October 7?
The accounts of the only two survivors of the hostage-taking incident in Be’eri on October 7 give the impression that the Israel Defense Forces employed the so-called Hannibal Directive with the people being held hostage by Hamas inside one of the houses on the kibbutz. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-12-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/if-israel-used-a-procedure-against-its-citizens-we-need-to-talk-about-it-now/0000018c-6383-de43-affd-f783212e0000?
2023-11-17 The Chris Hedges Report with reporter Max Blumenthal on how the Israeli military launched a series of attacks on Oct. 7 designed to kill Hamas gunmen along with their Israeli hostages. There is growing evidence that in the chaotic fighting that took place once Hamas militants entered Israel on October 7, the Israeli military decided to target not only Hamas fighters, but the Israeli captives with them. Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, told the Israeli press, he set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. Escapa told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that as desperation began to set in, “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.” The newspaper reported that Israeli commanders were “compelled to request an aerial strike” against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza “in order to repulse the terrorists” who had seized control. That base housed Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers.https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-chris-hedges-report-with-reporter
2023-11-03 What’s Israel’s Hannibal Directive? A former Israeli soldier tells all Now 41, Shaul is a co-founder of the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, the first such organisation of Israeli military veterans calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. It was during his time stationed at the border with Lebanon that Shaul was first told about the Hannibal Directive, a former controversial Israeli military policy aimed at preventing the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces – at any cost.
Israel last invoked it in 2014 during the war on Gaza that year, according to leaked military audio recordings, though the army denied it had used the doctrine. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in the Israeli bombardment that followed, sparking accusations of war crimes against the Israeli army.
The directive, also known as the Hannibal Procedure or Hannibal Protocol, is an Israeli military policy that stipulates the use of maximum force in the event of a soldier being kidnapped, said Shaul. “You will open fire without constraints, in order to prevent the abduction,” he said, adding that the use of force is carried out even at the risk of killing a captive soldier. In addition to firing at the abductors, soldiers can fire at junctions, roads, highways and other pathways opponents may take a kidnapped soldier through, Shaul said.
The Israeli military has denied the interpretation of the directive that allows for the killing of their fellow troops, but Israeli soldiers, including Shaul, have understood it as a licence to do just that, as it is preferred to a scenario in which a soldier is taken prisoner.https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/3/whats-the-hannibal-directive-a-former-israeli-soldier-tells-all
2016-10-08 The Hannibal Directive – Featured Documentary This film, by award-winning director Benny Brunner, explores the secret history of the Hannibal Directive – tracing its origins, its most recent use and how it has been applied The Hannibal Directive was a top-secret military order used by the Israeli army. First devised in 1986 by three senior army commanders, it stipulated measures to be taken when an Israeli soldier was captured during combat. Its purpose was to prevent the enemy from escaping with that soldier, even if it meant endangering the soldier’s life and the lives of civilians in the vicinity.
The order was last executed during the 2014 Gaza War – known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. During that conflict, more than 2,000 Palestinians and 72 Israelis were killed. On Friday August 1, 2014, at Rafah in the south of Gaza, the Israeli Army invoked the Hannibal Directive to try to stop Hamas fighters from fleeing with a captured Israeli officer. The unprecedented ferocity of the action that followed cost the lives of least 135 civilians – 75 of them children. Amnesty International and other NGOs have described the events of that day, “Black Friday”, as a war crime.
The documentary was made in 2015 amid mounting controversy about the application and morality of the doctrine – a dispute which eventually led to the order being quietly rescinded by the Israeli military in June 2016. It contains interviews with former Israeli soldiers, reservists and civilians who were at the time increasingly divided over whether such a brutal policy, which led to the deaths of so many innocent civilians, could ever be justified. https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Hannibal%20Directive&mid=FB5F6C127D98E881EFE0FB5F6C127D98E881EFE0&ajaxhist=0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcShjcjC2no&t=130s https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2016/10/7/the-hannibal-directive/
2014-08-06 Hadar Goldin and the Hannibal Directive Just what those circumstances were began to filter out early this week, and they attest to deep contradictions in the Israeli military—and in Israeli culture at large.
A temporary ceasefire went into effect last Friday morning at eight. At nine-fifteen, soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces headed toward a house, in the city of Rafah, that served as an entry point to a tunnel reportedly leading into Israel. As the I.D.F. troops advanced, a Hamas militant emerged from the tunnel and opened fire. Two soldiers were killed. A third, Goldin, was captured—whether dead or alive is unclear—and taken into the tunnel. What is clear is that after Goldin was reported missing, the I.D.F. enacted a highly controversial measure known as the Hannibal Directive, firing at the area where Goldin was last seen in order to stop Hamas from taking him captive. As a result, according to Palestinian sources, seventy Palestinians were killed. By Sunday, Goldin, too, had been declared dead. Opinions differ over how this protocol, which remained a military secret until 2003, came to be known as Hannibal. There are indications that it was named for the Carthaginian general, who chose to poison himself rather than fall captive to the Romans, but I.D.F. officials insist that a computer generated the name at random. Whatever its provenance, the moniker seems chillingly apt. Developed by three senior I.D.F. commanders, in 1986, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, the directive established the steps the military must take in the event of a soldier’s abduction. Its stated goal is to prevent Israeli troops from falling into enemy hands, “even at the cost of hurting or wounding our soldiers.” While normal I.D.F. procedures forbid soldiers from firing in the general direction of their fellow-troops, including attacking a getaway vehicle, such procedures, according to the Hannibal Directive, are to be waived in the case of an abduction: “Everything must be done to stop the vehicle and prevent it from escaping.” https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/hadar-goldin-hannibal-directive
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