Israeli army used Hannibal Directive during October 7 Hamas attack: Report
Al Jazeera
The directive is a controversial policy of Israel’s military aimed at preventing the capture of its soldiers.
The Israeli army ordered the Hannibal Directive – a controversial Israeli military policy aimed at preventing the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces at any cost – on October 7 last year, an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has revealed.
In a report on Sunday, the newspaper, based on testimonies of Israeli soldiers and senior army officers, said that during Hamas’s unprecedented attack last October, the Israeli army started making decisions with limited and unverified information, and issued an order that “not a single vehicle can return to Gaza”.
“At this point, the [Israeli army] was not aware of the extent of kidnapping along the Gaza border, but it did know that many people were involved. Thus, it was entirely clear what that message meant, and what the fate of some of the kidnapped people would be,” the report said.
On October 7, Hamas captured dozens of Israelis, many of whom are still in captivity or have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza, according to the Palestinian armed group. But many of those captured were civilians and not soldiers, to whom the Hannibal Directive does not apply.
The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks is estimated to be 1,139, while nearly 250 others were taken as captives, Israeli authorities say. Meanwhile, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on official statistics.