Hannibal Directive

Israel has, with several notable exceptions, adhered to the principle of not negotiating with those it considers terrorists, especially in hostage situations.{{Cite web |last=Keller-Lynn |first=Carrie |title=Hanegbi: Israel won’t negotiate with Hamas on hostages now, will remove it from power |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/hanegbi-israel-wont-negotiate-with-hamas-on-hostages-now-will-remove-it-from-power/ |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=www.timesofisrael.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2023-10-16 |title=Israel will not negotiate with terrorist organisation, says Israeli Ambassador to India - CNBC TV18 |url=https://www.cnbctv18.com/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-palestine-18068421.htm |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=CNBCTV18 |language=en}} This policy led to some notable successes, such as Operation Entebbe,{{Cite web |date=2015-06-27 |title=Israel's raid on Entebbe was almost a disaster |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11701064/Israels-raid-on-Entebbe-was-almost-a-disaster.html |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=The Telegraph |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170521010054/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11701064/Israels-raid-on-Entebbe-was-almost-a-disaster.html |archive-date=2017-05-21}} but also to loss of human life, e.g. the Maalot Massacre.{{Cite news |date=1974-05-16 |title=1974: Dozens die as Israel retaliates for Ma'alot |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/16/newsid_2512000/2512399.stm |access-date=2025-01-22 |language=en-GB}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jhKCiqvUDkEC&q=Amos%20Horev&pg=PA51 |title=The Israeli secret services and the struggle against terrorism |author=Ami Pedahzur |publisher=Columbia University Press |date=20 May 1974 |isbn=978-0-231-14042-3}} In cases where Israeli soldiers were captured and no military solution was found, Israel was forced to negotiate with the captors for an exchange of prisoners. Large parts of the Israeli public would not accept abandoning captured soldiers to their fate.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

In 1970, a member of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) entered Israel from Lebanon and abducted a security guard in the northernmost Israeli town of Metula. He did this in order to secure a swap of the guard for a senior member of Fatah, jailed in Israel.{{cn|date=January 2025}} In 1979, Israel agreed to exchange an Israeli POW held by Palestinians for 76 convicted Palestinian militants in Israeli jails.{{Cite news |date=1979-03-15 |title=Israel Exchanges 66 Palestinians For Soldier Captured in Lebanon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/15/archives/israel-exchanges-66-palestinians-for-soldier-captured-in-lebanon.html |access-date=2025-01-22 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

During the 1982 Lebanon War, Palestinian forces imprisoned nine IDF soldiers as POWs. Six were held by Fatah (the main faction of the PLO) and three by the pro-Syrian PFLP-GC. In 1983, Israel agreed to free 4,700 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners, including several high ranking PLO officers, for the six IDF soldiers held captive by Fatah. The following year Israel agreed to free another 1,150 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Many were allowed to remain in Israeli controlled territory.{{Cite news |last=Shipler |first=David K. |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=1983-11-24 |title=6 ISRAELIS FREED IN PRISONER PACT WITH THE P.L.O. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/24/world/6-israelis-freed-in-prisoner-pact-with-the-plo.html |access-date=2025-01-22 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

According to Haaretz reporter Leibovich-Dar, the motivation for the directive was the capture of two Israeli soldiers during a Hezbollah ambush in South Lebanon in June 1986. Both soldiers presumably died during the attack, and their bodies were returned to Israel in an exchange with Hezbollah in 1996. The directive developers were three top officers of the IDF Northern Command: Major General Yossi Peled, the command's operations officer; Colonel Gabi Ashkenazi; and the intelligence officer, Colonel Yaakov Amidror. The order was secret, and its existence was denied by Israeli military authorities.

The exact wording of the directive was not known, though Leibovich-Dar claimed that it had been updated several times over the years. Anshel Pfeffer, writing in The Jerusalem Post, described the order in 2006 as the "rumored" standard procedure in the eventuality of a kidnap attempt: "soldiers are told, though never officially" the content of this order.{{cite news |url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=25968 |title=Comment: The Entebbe Syndrome |work=Jerusalem Post |author=Anshel Pfeffer |date=2006-06-25 |access-date=2011-10-20}}

Maariv quoted a version of the directive apparently applicable in 2014:

{{quote|{{ordered list |type=upper-alpha|style=font-size: initial| During a kidnapping, the main task becomes to rescue our soldiers from the abductors, even at the cost of harming or injuring our soldiers.

| If the abductors and the kidnapped are identified and the calls are not heeded, a firearm must be fired in order to bring the kidnappers to the ground, or arrest them.

|item3_value=4|{{sic}} If the vehicle or the hijackers do not stop, they should be fired at individually, intentionally, in order to hit the hijackers, even if it means harming our soldiers. }}}}

This section was accompanied by an asterisk comment emphasizing: "In any case, everything should be done to stop the vehicle and not allow it to escape".{{cite news |url=https://www.maariv.co.il/news/military/Article-547270 |title=הרמטכ"ל איזנקוט: נוהל חניבעל שמופעל לאחר אירוע חטיפה ייכתב מחדש (Chief of Staff Eizenkot: The Hannibal procedure used after a kidnapping incident will be rewritten) |work=Maariv |author=Noam Amir |date=28 June 2016 |access-date=26 January 2022}} Hebrew text: "א. בזמן מחטף הופכת המשימה העיקרית חילוץ חיילינו מידי החוטפים גם במחיר של פגיעה או פציעת חיילינו. ב. במידה ויזוהו החוטפים והחטופים ולא נענו לקריאות לעצור, יש לבצע ירי נק"ל (נשק קל), על מנת להוריד את החוטפים לקרקע, או לעצור אותם.ד. אם לא עצר הרכב או החוטפים, יש לירות לעברם ירי נשק קל בבודדת, במכוון, על מנת לפגוע בחוטפים גם אם המשמעות פגיעה בחיילינו (סעיף זה לווה בהערת כוכבית שהדגישה: "בכל מקרה ייעשה הכל על מנת לעצור הרכב ולא לאפשר בריחתו").

Apparently, the Hannibal Directive existed in several versions at that time. It had been amended by the IDF General Staff in October 2013, but neither the corresponding orders at the IDF Southern Command, nor the one at the Gaza Division had been similarly updated by July 2014. The three different, simultaneously current, versions of the directive could therefore be interpreted in different ways, especially on the sensitive question of the value of a soldier's life.State Comptroller and Ombudsman, Justice (Ret.) Joseph Chaim Shapira (March 14, 2018), [https://www.mevaker.gov.il/he/reports/pages/622.aspx "Operation 'Protective Edge' – IDF Activity from the Perspective of International Law, Particularly with Regard to Mechanisms of Examination and Oversight of Civilian and Military Echelons"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204152605/https://www.mevaker.gov.il/he/reports/pages/622.aspx |date=2022-02-04 }}. p.9

Israeli officials insisted that the directive's name was a random computer-generated designation; however, Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, is said to have preferred suicide by poison rather than being taken prisoner by his Roman enemies.{{cite web |url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.5342898 |title=The Hannibal Procedure |work=Haaretz |first=Sara |last=Leibovich-Dar |date=2003-05-21 |access-date=2011-10-20}}{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/hadar-goldin-hannibal-directive |title=Hadar Goldin and the Hannibal Directive |magazine=The New Yorker|first=Ruth |last=Margalit |date=August 6, 2014 |access-date=August 9, 2014}}{{cite book|author=Livy |year=1936 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=|title=The History of Rome |at=Book XXIX, Chapter 51 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0166%3Abook%3D39%3Achapter%3D51}}

According to statements by several Israeli officials, the aim of the directive is to prevent the capture of an IDF soldier by enemy forces, even by risking the soldier's life or the lives of scores of non-Israeli civilians. Israeli spokespersons claim that IDF forces are forbidden to attempt to kill a captured soldier, rather than having him captured. Many testimonies from IDF soldiers and other sources contradict this claim and suggest that the IDF in practice adheres to the principle that a dead soldier is better than a captive soldier.{{cite news |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4614499,00.html |title=Hannibal Directive: Soldiers were following clear orders |publisher=ynetnews |first=Yossi |last=Yehoshua |date=14 January 2015 |access-date=20 September 2021}}

According to the directive, once it had been declared by a field officer, Israeli forces were to open fire on enemy forces carrying away an IDF prisoner. Vehicles suspected of removing such a prisoner from the battlefield could thus be attacked, even at the risk of harming, or even killing, the abductee himself. According to some interpretations, this includes even firing missiles from attack helicopters or firing tank shells at suspected escaping vehicles.

Amos Harel of Haaretz wrote in November 2011 that the Hannibal Directive was suspended for a time "due to opposition from the public and reservist soldiers" but was revised and reinstated by IDF Chief-of-Staff Benny Gantz after the abduction of Gilad Shalit in June 2006. The revised order stated that IDF commanders may take whatever action is necessary, even at the risk of endangering the life of an abducted soldier, to foil an abduction, but it does not allow them to kill an abducted Israeli soldier. The post-2006 version gave local field commanders the right to invoke Hannibal and take action, without waiting for superior officers' confirmation.

Former head of Israeli military intelligence (1974–1978) Shlomo Gazit criticised the fact that a low level officer ("a corporal") could invoke the Hannibal Directive, with such potentially far reaching consequences. The invocation of the Hannibal Directive in the 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid had far-reaching consequences. An IDF tank sent in pursuit of the abductors was attacked, killing its crew. Attempts to rescue the bodies of the tank crew led to further IDF losses. By the time the Israeli government convened to decide how to respond to the attack, Israel – according to Gazit – "was already at war".{{cite web |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2016/10/7/the-hannibal-directive |title=The Hannibal Directive |publisher=Al Jazeera English |first=Benny |last=Brunner |date=7 October 2016 |access-date=25 May 2021}}

The Hannibal Directive was officially revoked by the military in 2016.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/world/middleeast/israel-hannibal-procedure.html|title=Israeli Military Revokes Use of Maximum Force to Foil Captures |newspaper=The New York Times |date=28 June 2016 |last1=Kershner |first1=Isabel }}{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-20390-9_2 |chapter=Israeli National Protection Strategies and Realities |title=National and International Civilian Protection Strategies in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict |date=2023 |last1=Spitka |first1=Timea |pages=29–70 |isbn=978-3-031-20389-3 |quote=The directive was officially cancelled by the military in 2016 following heavy criticism.}}{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Raphael S. |last2=Johnson |first2=David E. |last3=Thaler |first3=David E. |title=From Cast Lead to Protective Edge: Lessons from Israel's Wars in Gaza |date=2021 |publisher=RAND Corporation |isbn=978-0-8330-9787-3 |url=https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1888.html |quote-page=120 |quote=In June 2016, the IDF announced it was revoking the controversial Hannibal directive. }} The directive was replaced by three separate directives in January 2017. They were named "True Test", "Tourniquet" and "Guardian of life" and dealt with abductions in the West Bank and outside Israel in peace time and a general directive for war time. Very little is known about the content of these directives or the eventual differences between them. One general difference between the new and the previous Hannibal directive is that now it is clearly stated that, in case of an attempted abduction, soldiers should fire at the abductors "while avoiding hitting the captive".{{Cite news|last= Gross |first= Judah Ari |title= New IDF orders to thwart soldier abductions replace misunderstood protocol |url= https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-idf-directives-allow-massive-force-to-prevent-soldiers-kidnapping/ |date= 23 January 2017 |access-date=13 December 2023 |work= Times of Israel |language=en }}

A July 2024 Haaretz investigation revealed that the IDF ordered the Hannibal Directive to be used during the October 7 attacks.

In September 2024 ABC News reported on the use of the Hannibal Directive on October 7.

Dr. Avner Shiftan, an army physician with the rank of major, came across the Hannibal directive while on reserve duty in South Lebanon in 1999. In army briefings he "became aware of a procedure ordering soldiers to kill any IDF soldier if he should be taken captive by Hezbollah. This procedure struck me as being illegal and not consistent with the moral code of the IDF. I understood that it was not a local procedure but originated in the General Staff, and had the feeling that a direct approach to the army authorities would be of no avail, but would end in a cover-up."{{cite news | url= http://www.haaretz.com/shots-across-the-bow-1.10755 | title = Better dead than abducted | publisher = Haaretz | date=8 May 2003| first= Aviv |last=Lavie | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140809095719/http://www.haaretz.com/shots-across-the-bow-1.10755 | archive-date = 9 August 2014}}

He contacted Asa Kasher, the Israeli philosopher noted for his authorship of Israel Defense Forces' Code of Conduct, who "found it difficult to believe that such an order exists" since this "is wrong ethically, legally and morally". He doubted that "there is anyone in the army" believing that 'better a dead soldier than an abducted soldier'. Haaretz article about Dr. Shiftan's experience was the first to be published in an Israeli newspaper.

In contrast to the view of Kasher, the IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz said in an interview with Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth in 1999: "In certain senses, with all the pain that saying this entails, an abducted soldier, in contrast to a soldier who has been killed, is a national problem." Asked whether he was referring to cases like Ron Arad (an Air Force navigator captured in 1986) and Nachshon Wachsman (an abducted soldier killed in 1994 in a failed rescue attempt), he replied "definitely, and not only".

According to Prof. Emanuel Gross, from the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa, "Orders like that have to go through the filter of the Military Advocate General's Office, and if they were not involved that is very grave", he said. "The reason is that an order that knowingly permits the death of soldiers to be brought about, even if the intentions were different, carries a black flag and is a flagrantly illegal order that undermines the most central values of our social norms".

Harel writes that a kind of "Oral Law" has developed inside IDF, which is supported by many commanders, even at brigade and division level. It goes further than the official order, including the use of tank shells or air strikes. "A dangerous, unofficial interpretation of the protocol has been created", a senior officer told Haaretz. "Intentionally targeting a vehicle in order to kill the abductee is a completely illegal command. The army's senior command must make this clear to officers."

In anticipation of the Gaza War in 2009, Lt. Col. Shuki Ribak, the commander of the Golani Brigade's 51st battalion, instructed his soldiers to avoid kidnapping at any cost and even made clear that he expected his soldiers to commit suicide rather than being abducted:

{{quote|[N]o soldier in Battalion 51 will be kidnapped at any price. At any price. Under any condition. Even if it means that he blows himself with his own grenade together with those trying to capture him. Also even if it means that now his unit has to fire a barrage at the car that they are trying to take him away in.{{cite news | url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-warns-soldiers-of-kidnappings-ahead-of-gilad-shalit-s-release-1.390520 | title = IDF warns soldiers of kidnappings ahead of Gilad Shalit's release | publisher =Haaretz | first= Anshel |last=Pfeffer | date= 2011-10-18 | access-date= 2011-10-20}}{{cite news | url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvlP6yM15ws | title = The IDF Hannibal Protocol - IDF Commander Briefing Troops | publisher = Israel Television Channel 2 News | date= 16 October 2011 | access-date= Aug 25, 2012}}}}

After a recording of Ribak's instructions was distributed by an anonymous source, the IDF reiterated its denial of having a policy of intentionally killing captured soldiers.

The Hannibal Directive was invoked in October 2000 after the Hezbollah capture of three Israeli soldiers in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms (Har Dov) area. An Israeli border patrol was attacked by a Hezbollah squad with rockets and automatic fire. St.-Sgt. Adi Avitan, St.-Sgt. Benyamin Avraham and St.-Sgt. Omar Sawaid were captured and brought over the ceasefire line into Lebanon by their captors. When the abduction was discovered, the Northern Command ordered a "Hannibal situation". Israeli attack helicopters fired at 26 moving vehicles in the area since they assumed that the abducted soldiers were transported in one of them. Yossi Rephaeloff, the commanding officer who invoked the Hannibal procedure, was asked if it did not occur to him that by firing at the cars he might also kill the abducted soldiers. He answered that when he saw the jeep, he realized that they were no longer alive.

Tank gunner Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid from Gaza 25 June 2006. Two IDF soldiers were killed in the attack and another two were wounded. Shalit was held for five years, before being exchanged for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, which was the highest number released for a single Israeli prisoner. According to the Israeli commission of inquiry, headed by Giora Eiland, the Hannibal directive was declared more than an hour after the capture. By that time, Shalit and his captors were already well inside the Gaza strip.{{cite news |url=http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3273152,00.html |title=דו"ח איילנד: זמן רב חלף עד להכרזה על חטיפה |work=Yedioth Aharonoth |author=Hanan Greenberg |date=2006-07-10 |access-date=2011-10-30}} The declaration of Hannibal therefore had few practical consequences.

On 12 July 2006, two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were captured by Hezbollah in an ambush, in which three other soldiers were killed. The Hannibal directive was invoked and a force consisting of tanks and armored personnel carriers was sent across the border to capture a Hezbollah post and block the exit routes out of the town of Ayta ash-Sha’b. A Merkava II main battle tank ran over a powerful explosive charge and was totally destroyed and its four crew killed. The rescue mission was therefore aborted. An eighth IDF soldier was killed trying to retrieve the bodies of the tank crew.{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/angels-of-death-knocking-at-my-door-1.193730 |title=Angels of death knocking at my door |work=Haaretz |author=Eitan Baron |date=25 July 2006 |access-date=2011-10-20}}Harel, Amos and Avi Issacharoff, 34 Days: Israel, Hezbollah, and the War in Lebanon, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2008, p.12{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hezbollah-kills-8-soldiers-kidnaps-two-in-offensive-on-northern-border-1.192965|title=Hezbollah kills 8 soldiers, kidnaps two in offensive on northern border |work=Haaretz|author=Amos Harel |date=2006-07-13 |access-date=2011-11-10}} The Hannibal directive triggered instant aerial surveillance and airstrikes inside Lebanon to limit Hezbollah's ability to move the soldiers it had seized. "If we had found them, we would have hit them, even if it meant killing the soldiers," a senior Israeli official said.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001688_pf.html |title=Israeli War Plan Had No Exit Strategy |newspaper=Washington Post |author=Scott Wilson |date=21 October 2006 |access-date=10 November 2020}} The bodies of the two soldiers were returned in an exchange with Hezbollah in July 2008.

During the 2008–2009 Gaza war, an unidentified Israeli soldier was shot and injured by a Hamas fighter during a search of a house in one of the neighbourhoods of Gaza. The Hannibal directive was declared. The wounded soldiers' comrades evacuated the house due to fears that it was booby-trapped. According to testimony by soldiers who took part in the incident the house was then shelled to prevent the wounded soldier from being captured alive by Hamas. According to the IDF spokesman, however, the soldier was already dead, killed by terrorist gunfire.{{cite news |url=http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/845/154.html |title=בית בעזה ובו גופת חייל הופגז - למנוע חטיפתה |publisher=Maariv (NRG) |author=Amir Bohbot |date=2009-01-26 |access-date=2011-10-30}}

In 2009, Israeli civilian Yakir Ben-Melech was shot dead by Israeli security guards while trying to enter the Gaza Strip from Israel, by jumping the fence at the Erez crossing. He was a mental patient of Yehuda Abarbanel Mental Health Center, who, according to family members, wanted to contact Hamas, to secure the release of Israeli captive Gilad Shalit. According to Shlomo Saban, director of the Erez crossing, several warning shots were fired, after which the man was shot in the leg, an injury that caused extensive loss of blood and eventually led to his death.{{cite news | url= http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3816607,00.html | title = Man shot on Gaza border was mental patient | publisher = Yediot Achronot | date= 12 July 2009 | access-date= 2011-11-20}}

Reportedly, the Hannibal Directive was declared when Ben-Melech tried to jump the fence and he was shot, not by IDF soldiers but by members of a private security firm, responsible for security at the Erez gate. Former Chief of Staff of the Southern Command, Brig.-Gen. Zvika Fogel said in an interview with Israeli radio: "We can't afford now any soul mate of Gilad Shalit".{{cite news | url=http://www.haokets.org/2009/12/08/ידיד-נפש-אב-הרחמן-כך-הרגו-את-יקיר-בן-מלך| title = ידיד נפש, אב הרחמן: כך הרגו את יקיר בן מלך | publisher = Haoketz.org| author= Meron Rapoport and Kobi Peterzil| date= 8 December 2009| access-date= 2011-10-30}}Blumenthal, Max, THE 51 DAY WAR, Ruin and Resistance in Gaza, p.97.{{Cite news|last= Cook |first= Jonathan |title= Israelis shot mental patient 'under controversial military directive' |url= https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/israelis-shot-mental-patient-under-controversial-military-directive-1.505548 |date= 10 December 2009 |access-date= |work= The National|language=en }}

During the 2014 Gaza War, the third major offensive launched by Israel in Gaza since 2008, IDF Givati Brigade Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was captured by Hamas militants after a brief skirmish on August 1, despite the announcement of a 72-hour ceasefire agreement earlier that day. Forensic Architecture, investigating for Amnesty International in 2015, concluded that Israel then initiated the Hannibal Directive, ultimately resulting in carnage dubbed "Black Friday."{{cite news|first=Jack|last= Moore|url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hadar-goldin-hannibal-directive-israels-nightmare-dilemma-stop-soldier-becoming-hamas-1459367|title=Hadar Goldin and 'Hannibal Directive': Israel's Nightmare Dilemma to Stop Soldier Becoming Hamas Pawn|work=International Business Times|date=August 1, 2014|quote=Following the capture of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Hadar Goldin, reports are circulating that the Israeli military may invoke the covert 'Hannibal Directive' to prevent the Second Lieutenant being used as critical leverage in the ongoing Gaza conflict}}{{Cite web|date=2015-07-29|title=Israel 'committed war crimes' in Gaza, Amnesty says|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/amnesty-international-accuses-israel-of-war-crimes-during-black-friday-of-gaza-war-10424085.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/amnesty-international-accuses-israel-of-war-crimes-during-black-friday-of-gaza-war-10424085.html |archive-date=2022-05-09 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-16|website=The Independent|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2015-07-29|title=Gaza 'Black Friday': Cutting edge investigation points to Israeli war crimes in Rafah|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/07/gaza-cutting-edge-investigation-rafah/|access-date=2022-01-16|publisher=Amnesty International|language=en}} The IDF carried out air and ground attacks on residential areas of Rafah during the Hannibal Directive attempt to prevent capture of Lt. Goldin.{{Cite news|date=2015-07-29|title=Gaza: 'Israeli war crimes' followed soldier's capture – Amnesty|language=en-GB|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33700343|access-date=2022-01-16}} Amnesty and Forensic Architecture concluded that Israel's indiscriminate violence against all human life amounted to war crimes. Their report, along with the United Nations' investigation, the United Nations' Gaza Inquiry investigation alleged that war crimes were committed by both Israel and armed Palestinian groups, presumably Hamas.{{Cite web|title=OHCHR {{!}} CoIGazaConflict Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict |url=https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIGazaConflict/Pages/ReportCoIGaza.aspx|access-date=2022-01-16|website=www.ohchr.org}}{{Cite web|title=OHCHR {{!}} UN Gaza Inquiry finds credible allegations of war crimes committed in 2014 by both Israel and Palestinian armed groups|url=https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=16119&LangID=E|access-date=2022-01-16|website=www.ohchr.org}} The massive Israeli bombardment killed between 135 and 200 Palestinian civilians, including 75 children, in the three hours following the suspected capture of the one Israeli soldier.{{Cite web|title='Black Friday' Summary: Carnage in Rafah during 2014 Israel/Gaza conflict|url=https://blackfriday.amnesty.org/|access-date=2022-01-16|website=blackfriday.amnesty.org}}{{Cite news|last=Zitun|first=Yoav|date=2015-01-08|title=Defense Minister Ya'alon objects to probe into 'Black Friday' |language=en|work=Ynetnews|url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4613047,00.html|access-date=2022-01-16}} Haaretz reported this to be the "most devastating" use of the Hannibal Directive to date.{{Cite news|title=The Hannibal Directive: Why Israel Risks the Life of the Soldier Being Rescued |language=en|work=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-the-hannibal-directive-1.5257931|access-date=2022-01-16|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220116020817/https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-the-hannibal-directive-1.5257931|archive-date=16 January 2022|quote=On Friday morning... the Hannibal Directive was activated to its most devastating extent yet – including massive artillery bombardments and air strikes on possible escape routes.}}

In December 2014, audio recordings from the IDF's communication system were obtained by Ynet.{{Cite news |last=Zitun |first=Yoav |date=2014-12-31 |title=Hannibal Directive: Exclusive tapes reveal details of IDF's Black Friday |language=en |work=Ynetnews |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4609436,00.html |access-date=2022-01-16}} This evidence, in addition to the July 2015 release of full transcripts from the IDF's communication system, reveal the initiation of the Hannibal Directive.{{cite news |date=July 7, 2015 |title=Recordings from 'Black Friday' in Rafah |publisher=Haaretz |url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.2678461 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220116015258/https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.2678461 |archive-date=16 January 2022}}{{Cite web|date=2015-01-08|first=Eamon |last=Murphy |title='You're Shooting Like Retards': Rafah recordings reveal IDF's Hannibal directive in action|url=https://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/shooting-recordings-directive/|access-date=2022-01-16|website=Mondoweiss|language=en-US}} However, an IDF investigation denied that the "Hannibal Procedure" was implemented, despite admitting to using the phrase on IDF field radios. The IDF investigation concluded that 41 people were killed, 12 of them Hamas combatants.{{Cite web|title=Apparently the 'Hannibal Procedure' was not activated, and no one will be tried.|url=https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/1/ART2/672/957.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220116015851/https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/1/ART2/672/957.html|archive-date=16 January 2022|access-date=2022-01-16|website=www.makorrishon.co.il}} Asa Kasher, a winner of the Israel Prize and the author of the IDF's ethical code, disagreed with the IDF's report while speaking at a conference of the Tzohar Zionist rabbinical organization. Kasher stated that a soldier had been killed during the summer of 2014 by his comrades due to a mistaken understanding of the directive; Kasher intimated that the soldier was Lt. Goldin.{{cite web |url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/197851 |title=IDF Ethics Code Author: Hannibal Protocol Misused Last Summer |date=2015-07-08 |access-date=2015-07-08|publisher=Arutz Sheva}}

Testimonies from IDF soldiers involved in the attack provided further evidence contrary to the official IDF story.{{Cite web |title=This is How We Fought in Gaza: Soldiers׳ testimonies and photographs from Operation Protective Edge |url=https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/pdf/ProtectiveEdge.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220116032230/https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/pdf/ProtectiveEdge.pdf |archive-date=16 January 2022}} An Israeli army infantry officer described the events of August 1 to Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence as follows:{{Cite web|title=Breaking the Silence › Testimony › "You don't spare any means"|url=https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/testimonies/database/128536|access-date=2022-01-16|publisher=Breaking the Silence}}

The minute 'Hannibal Directive' is declared on the radio, there are consequences. There's a fire procedure called the 'Hannibal fire procedure' – you fire at every suspicious place that merges with a central route. You don't spare any means.

He reported that the initial fire lasted three hours. An artillery soldier said his battery was "firing at a maximum fire rate" into inhabited areas.{{Cite web|title=Breaking the Silence › Testimony › The battery fired 900 shells that night|url=https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/testimonies/database/733615|access-date=2022-01-16|website=Breaking the Silence}} According to the Givati Brigade inquiry, more than 2,000 bombs, missiles and shells were fired in Rafah on 1 August 2014, including 1,000 in the three hours following the capture.{{Cite web|title='Black Friday' Report: Carnage in Rafah during 2014 Israel/Gaza conflict|url=https://blackfriday.amnesty.org/report.php|access-date=2022-01-16|website=blackfriday.amnesty.org}}{{Cite news|title=תחקיר גבעתי על הקרב ברפיח: הפעלת האש היתה מידתית, אך החיילים פעלו בגזרה שלא אובטחה כראוי|language=he|work=הארץ |url=https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.2613390|access-date=2022-01-16|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220116040919/https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.2613390|archive-date=16 January 2022}}

A second case occurred in a clash between an IDF unit and Hamas forces on July 25, 2014. After St.-Sgt. Guy Levy went missing, the Hannibal procedure was reportedly enacted. It is unknown whether Levy was captured dead or alive, and killed later by IDF fire. According to the IDF, Levy was killed by a Hamas anti-tank missile and his body seized by Hamas.{{Cite magazine|last= Margalit|first= Ruth|title= Hadar Goldin and the Hannibal Directive|url= https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/hadar-goldin-hannibal-directive |date= 6 August 2014 |access-date= 9 December 2023 |magazine= The New Yorker|language=en }}{{cite news |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-confirms-deaths-of-two-soldiers-friday-and-former-mia-raising-toll-to-35/ | title = Soldier killed by anti-tank missile fired from near UN school, raising IDF toll to 35| publisher = Times of Israel | author= | date= July 25, 2014| access-date= August 3, 2014}}

During the Battle of Shuja'iyya, on July 20, 2014, Hamas fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF armored personnel carrier carrying seven soldiers, including St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul.{{cite news|last1=Harel|first1=Amos|title=Soldiers killed in Gaza were deployed in 50-year-old APC |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.606238|access-date=15 October 2014|publisher=Haaretz|date=20 July 2014}}

Hamas claimed to have captured an IDF soldier named "Aron Shaul", corroborating its claim with the soldier's "photo ID and credentials".{{cite news|last1=Plesser|first1=Ben|title=Israel Hunts Remains of Missing Soldier Sgt. Oron Shaul|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/middle-east-unrest/israel-hunts-remains-missing-soldier-sgt-oron-shaul-n162036|access-date=15 October 2014|publisher=NBC|date=22 July 2014}}{{cite news|last1=Lynfield|first1=Ben|title=Israel-Gaza conflict: Israeli military names soldier Oron Shaul confirmed as 'missing' after Hamas celebrates alleged kidnap|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-israel-confirms-soldier-missing-after-hamas-celebrates-alleged-kidnap-9620261.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-israel-confirms-soldier-missing-after-hamas-celebrates-alleged-kidnap-9620261.html |archive-date=2022-05-09 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=15 October 2014 |work=The Independent|date=22 July 2014}} The IDF later stated that the body of Oron Shaul had not been identified among the dead found inside the vehicle.{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-israel-idUSKBN0FP00U20140722|title=Israel says soldier missing, presumed dead; Kerry presses for truce|publisher=Reuters}}{{cite news|last1=Ginsberg|first1=Mitch|title=Golani soldier Oron Shaul caught in Gaza ambush is MIA|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/golani-soldier-caught-in-gaza-ambush-is-likely-mia/|access-date=15 October 2014|publisher=Times of Israel|date=22 July 2014}} It is unclear{{Speculation inline|date=December 2023}} if Shaul was captured alive or dead or whether the Hannibal Directive was invoked or not.§ 57, Report of the independent commission of inquiry established pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution S-21/1, 24 June 2015

Two members of the Oketz Unit (Special Forces) soldiers entered Qalandiya Refugee Camp by mistake and were confronted by a Palestinian crowd, which began throwing stones and molotov cocktails. The burning jeep was abandoned and the two soldiers got separated in the alleys of the camp. One of them retained his mobile phone, contacted IDF command and was picked up by IDF forces. The second soldier hid in a yard, waiting to be rescued. Meanwhile "Hannibal" was declared and the camp was surrounded by large numbers of IDF forces. After less than an hour the second soldier was found unharmed. So, none of the IDF soldiers were ever captured by Palestinians. One Palestinian was killed in the clashes, while 10 Palestinians and five Israeli soldiers were wounded.{{Cite news |first1=Yoav |last1=Zitun |first2=Elisha |last2=Ben Kimon |first3=Elior |last3=Levy |title=Danger in Qalandiya: minute by minute |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4772717,00.html |date=3 January 2016 |access-date=9 December 2023 |language=he |work=YNetNews }}

The incident has been described as the last incident where the Hannibal directive was officially declared.

{{See also|Friendly fire during the Gaza war}}

{{anchor|7 October}}

Some commentators have argued that the Hannibal directive, previously understood to generally apply to situations involving IDF soldiers, enemy combatants and possibly non-Israeli civilians (with the goal of avoiding a repetition of the Ahmad Jibril, Samir Kuntar and Gilad Shalit prisoner exchanges thought as unfavorable for Israel), but not to Israeli civilians, was implemented by the IDF on a mass scale on 7 October 2023 when the IDF fired on Israeli civilian hostages while they were being driven by Hamas militants into Gaza. This would be the first time in the history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict that a Palestinian kidnapping operation and subsequent IDF Hannibal reaction included Israeli civilians.{{cite web | url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/3/whats-the-hannibal-directive-a-former-israeli-soldier-tells-all |website=Al Jazeera|first=Urooba |last=Jamal|date=3 November 2023| title=What's Israel's Hannibal Directive? A former Israeli soldier tells all }} An investigation by Haaretz in July 2024 concluded that the directive had been used on several occasions on that day, starting with a 7:18 a.m. order for the situation at Erez border crossing.{{cite news|first=Yaniv |last=Kubovich|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-07/ty-article-magazine/.premium/idf-ordered-hannibal-directive-on-october-7-to-prevent-hamas-taking-soldiers-captive/00000190-89a2-d776-a3b1-fdbe45520000|title=IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive|work=Haaretz |date=7 July 2024}}{{Cite news |last=McKernan |first=Bethan |date=2024-07-07 |title=IDF used protocol that may have risked civilian lives in Hamas attack – report |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/07/israel-idf-hannibal-protocol-hamas-attack-haaretz |access-date=2024-10-18 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

On 5 December 2023, Israeli hostages released by Hamas met with Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet and claimed that, during the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel they were deliberately attacked by Israeli helicopters on their way into Gaza, and were shelled constantly by the Israeli military while they were there.{{cite news | url=https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/hkp00rchsp | title="הפגיזו לידנו, בעלי הרביץ לעצמו": עדויות החטופות בפגישה עם הקבינט | newspaper=Ynet | date=5 December 2023 | last1=אייכנר | first1=איתמר | last2=צ'כנובר | first2=יעל }}

In an interview with Haaretz's weekly Hebrew podcast, Lieut. Col. Nof Erez explained that the IDF was more or less wiped out on the ground on the Gaza border. There was no one that helicopter or drone pilots could communicate with. This made the identification of persons on the ground very difficult. According to Erez, "the Hannibal [Protocol], for which we have been conducting drills over the past 20 years, relates to the case a single vehicle containing hostages: you know which part of the fence it comes through, what side of the road it would move to and even which road... What we saw here was a 'mass Hannibal'. There were many openings in the fence. Thousands of people in many different vehicles, both with hostages and without hostages".{{Cite news|last= |first= |title= הסקרים לא מתפרסמים אבל הכיוון ברור - רוב בציבור אומר לנתניהו "לך" |url= https://www.haaretz.co.il/digital/podcast/weekly/2023-11-09/ty-article-podcast/0000018b-b3a5-d3c1-a39b-bfe55acb0000 |date= 2023-11-09 |access-date= 2023-12-14|work= Haaretz.co.il weekly podcast|language=he }}{{Cite news|last= |first= |title= Israeli colonel says Hannibal Directive was possibly deployed on 7 October |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkjRqAJYDUg |date= 2023-11-21 |access-date= |work= Middle East Eye |language= he, en }}

The Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported on 16 December that IDF forces had shot at a tractor carrying hostages to Gaza, killing one hostage and injuring others.{{Cite web |last=Steinman |first=Tamir |date=2023-12-16 |title=י 49 ימים בגיהנום {{!}} דורון כץ-אשר, ששוחררה משבי חמאס עם שתי בנותיה, על רגעי האימה והניתוח שעברה ללא הרדמה |trans-title=49 days in hell – Doron Katz-Asher, who was released from captivity with her two daughters, about the moments of horror and the surgery she underwent without anesthesia |url=https://www.mako.co.il/news-israel/2023_q4/Article-92812c6e6637c81027.htm |access-date=2024-01-27 |website=N12 |trans-quote='At some point they actually put us on a tractor that took us from the field directly to Gaza. This is also where we were injured by the shooting.' At this point, the IDF force is shooting at them, to try to stop the tractor that is now speeding towards Gaza. 'In the middle of the ride on the tractor, there was shooting, as a result of which my beloved mother was killed. I was injured in the back and my little Avi was injured in the leg.'}} According to Kibbutz Be'eri survivors Hadas Dagan and Yasmin Porat, an Israeli tank fired two shells at a house that was known to hold over a dozen hostages, including 12-year-old twins; only two hostages survived.{{citation |author=Patrick Kingsley, Aaron Boxerman, Natan Odenheimer, Ronen Bergman, Marco Hernandez |title=The Day Hamas Came |date=2023-12-22 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/22/world/europe/beeri-massacre.html |periodical=The New York Times |access-date=2024-01-06 |issn=0362-4331 |quote=As the dusk approached, the SWAT commander and General Hiram began to argue. The SWAT commander thought more kidnappers might surrender. The general wanted the situation resolved by nightfall. Minutes later, the militants launched a rocket-propelled grenade, according to the general and other witnesses who spoke to The Times. ‘The negotiations are over,’ General Hiram recalled telling the tank commander. ‘Break in, even at the cost of civilian casualties.’ The tank fired two light shells at the house. Shrapnel from the second shell hit Mr. Dagan in the neck, severing an artery and killing him, his wife said. During the melee, the kidnappers were also killed. Only two of the 14 hostages — Ms. Dagan and Ms. Porat — survived.}}{{citation |author=Liza Rozovsky |title=Families of Israelis Killed in Be'eri Home Hit by IDF Tank on October 7 Demand Probe |date=2024-01-06 |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-06/ty-article/.premium/families-of-israelis-killed-in-beeri-home-hit-by-tank-fire-on-october-7-demand-probe/0000018c-de77-daf6-a5df-df7f22d60000 |periodical=Haaretz |access-date=2024-01-06 |quote=[...] Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram said he had ordered a tank commander to fire on the home of Kibbutz Be'eri resident Pesi Cohen, in which Israeli civilians and many terrorists were holed up, ‘even at the cost of civilian casualties.’ [...] families of the killed Israelis demanded ‘a comprehensive and transparent probe into the decisions and actions that led to this tragic outcome. [...]’}}{{Cite web |date=2024-01-11|first=Julia|last=Frankel|first2=Alon|last2=Bernstein |title=Friendly fire may have killed their relatives on Oct. 7. These Israeli families want answers now |url=https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-hostages-investigation-friendly-fire-3b6fdd4592957340b32a8ee71505b8e9 |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=AP News |language=en}} In January 2024, a Haaretz editorial asked the IDF to disclose whether the Hannibal Directive was used during the Be'eri massacre.{{Cite news |last=Haaretz Editorial |date=2023-01-08 |title=The IDF Must Investigate the Kibbutz Be'eri Tank Fire Incident – Right Now |url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2024-01-08/ty-article-opinion/the-idf-must-investigate-the-kibbutz-beeri-tank-fire-incident-right-now/0000018c-e5b8-d765-ab9d-f5fd1f830000 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240108155035/https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2024-01-08/ty-article-opinion/the-idf-must-investigate-the-kibbutz-beeri-tank-fire-incident-right-now/0000018c-e5b8-d765-ab9d-f5fd1f830000 |archive-date=2024-01-08 |access-date=2024-01-08 |work=Haaretz |language=en}}

On 18 December the IDF confirmed that Israeli combatants “fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7," but added that "beyond the operational investigations of the events, it would not be morally sound to investigate these incidents due to the immense and complex quantity of them that took place in the kibbutzim and southern Israeli communities due to the challenging situations the soldiers were in at the time."{{cite news | url=https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rkjqoobip | title=One-fifth of troop fatalities in Gaza due to friendly fire or accidents, IDF reports | newspaper=Ynetnews | date=12 December 2023 | last1=Zitun | first1=Yoav }} In January, an investigation by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth concluded that the IDF had in practice applied the Hannibal Directive from noon of October 7, ordering all combat units to stop "at all costs" any attempt by Hamas militants to return to Gaza with hostages.{{Cite news |last1=Bergman |first1=Ronen |author-link=Ronen Bergman |last2=Zitun |first2=Yoav |date=2024-01-10 |title=ההוראה: למנוע ממחבלים לחזור לעזה 'בכל מחיר', גם אם יש איתם חטופים |trans-title=The instructions: prevent terrorists from returning to Gaza "at all costs" even if there are hostages with them |url=https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/yokra13754368 |access-date=2024-01-12 |work=Ynet |language=he}} According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli soldiers inspected around 70 vehicles on the roads leading to Gaza that had been hit by a helicopter, tank or UAV, killing all occupants in at least some cases.{{Cite news |last1=Bergman |first1=Ronen |author-link=Ronen Bergman |last2=Zitun |first2=Yoav |date=2024-01-12 |title=השעות הראשונות של השבת השחורה |trans-title=The first hours of Black Saturday |url=https://w.ynet.co.il/yediot/7-days/time-of-darkness |access-date=2024-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118162157/https://w.ynet.co.il/yediot/7-days/time-of-darkness |archive-date=2024-01-18 |work=Yedioth Ahronoth |language=he}}

Also in January, Middle East Monitor reported that Noam Dan, cousin of hostage Ofer Calderon, launched an accusation against the Israeli Prime Minister, claiming that captives in Gaza are being deliberately sacrificed as part of a strategy to prolong [Netanyahu's] political tenure. Dan argued that this forms part of a wider "Hannibal Directive", stating, "My government is annihilating them."{{cite news |title=Cousin of captive accuses Israeli PM of sacrificing hostages for political gain |url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240123-cousin-of-captive-accuses-israeli-pm-of-sacrificing-hostages-for-political-gain/ |work=Middle East Monitor |date=23 January 2024 }}

According to MondoWeiss, on 28 March 2024 IDF Captain Bar Zonshein gave an interview in which he recounted firing tank shells on vehicles on October 7, although he did not know if there were Israeli combatants alive or dead in them. Pressed on whether it was the right decision if there were Israeli soldiers killed as a result, he said "I decided that this is the right decision, that it's better to stop the abduction and that they not be taken," he told Israeli media outlets.{{cite web | url=https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/another-israeli-soldier-admits-to-implementing-the-hannibal-directive-on-october-7/ | title=Another Israeli soldier admits to implementing the 'Hannibal Directive' on October 7 | website=MondoWeiss | date=26 March 2024 }}

A report by a UN Commission published in June 2024 found that the Israel Security Forces used the Hannibal Directive in several instances on October 7th. In one example, a tank crew confirmed that they had applied the Hannibal Directive when they shot at a vehicle suspected of carrying kidnapped Israeli soldiers. The report also said that in two instances, Israeli forces "had likely applied the Hannibal Directive," resulting in the killing of up to 14 Israeli civilians.{{cite news |author1=Nicola Smith |title=Israel killed own citizens on October 7 in 'Hannibal Directive', UN claims |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/13/israel-killed-dozen-own-citizens-on-october-7-un-claims/ |access-date=15 June 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=13 June 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240615152306/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/13/israel-killed-dozen-own-citizens-on-october-7-un-claims/ |archive-date=15 Jun 2024}}{{Cite web |title=UN finds at least 14 Israelis likely intentionally killed by own army on 7 October |url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-un-killed-own-soldiers-army-7-october |access-date=2024-06-13 |website=Middle East Eye |language=en}}

A July 2024 Haaretz investigation revealed that the IDF ordered the Hannibal Directive to be used, adding: "Haaretz does not know whether or how many civilians and soldiers were hit due to these procedures, but the cumulative data indicates that many of the kidnapped people were at risk, exposed to Israeli gunfire, even if they were not the target." One of these decisions was made at 7:18 A.M., when an observation post reported someone had been kidnapped at the Erez crossing, close to the IDF's liaison office. "Hannibal at Erez" came the command from divisional headquarters, "dispatch a Zik." The Zik is an unmanned assault drone, and the meaning of this command was clear, Haaretz reported.

A source in the Southern Command of the IDF told Haaretz: "Everyone knew by then that such vehicles could be carrying kidnapped civilians or soldiers...There was no case in which a vehicle carrying kidnapped people was knowingly attacked, but you couldn't really know if there were any such people in a vehicle. I can't say there was a clear instruction, but everyone knew what it meant to not let any vehicles return to Gaza." The same source stated that on 2:00 P.M. a new instruction was given that "was meant to turn the area around the border fence into a killing zone, closing it off toward the west."

Haaretz further reported that at 6:40 P.M. military intelligence believed militants were intending to flee back to Gaza in an organized manner from near Kibbutz Be'eri, Kfar Azza and Kissufim. In response the army launched artillery at the border fence area, very close to some of these communities. Shells were fired at the Erez border crossing shortly thereafter. The IDF says it is not aware of any civilians being hurt in these bombardments.

Haaretz noted one case in which it is known that civilians were hit, which took place in the house of Pessi Cohen at Kibbutz Be'eri. 14 hostages were in the house as the IDF attacked it, with 13 of them killed.

A September 2024 report by ABC News (Australia) covers the use of the Hannibal Directive. The report quotes former Israeli officer, Air Force Colonel Nof Erez as saying: "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." The report also notes tank officers confirming their interpretation of the Directive, 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."

ABC News adds that both soldiers and Israeli civilians were targeted. In two incidents Israeli civilians survived Israeli forces firing on them and killing other hostages. A survivor of Kibbutz Nir Oz described being fired upon by the Israeli military as Hamas members tried to take her and other hostages across the border: "[An] IDF helicopter appeared above us. At some point the helicopter shot at the terrorists, the driver and the others. There was screaming in the wagon." Ms Dekel-Chen said one woman, her friend Efrat Katz, was shot and killed. Six months later an Israeli Air Force investigation acknowledged it was likely an attack helicopter had killed Katz.

ABC News noted the use of the Directive in Kibbutz Be'eri at the Pessi residence, killing 13 civilians.

The report adds that in response to Be'eri survivors the IDF began an investigation, and cleared itself of wrongdoing in an operational review released in July 2024, leaving many in Be'eri unsatisfied. Pessi Cohen's daughter-in-law Sharon Cohen told Israeli radio she did not accept the investigation's conclusions: "That's not really true [that hostages were not harmed by tank shells]," she told Israel's Radio Bet on July 14. "Out of personal privacy issues, I can't really get into the details. These are details that we were told would be investigated again. In addition, I'll say that because the incidents in the kibbutz were so exceptional and strange and difficult, the whole issue of removing the bodies, and autopsies, and all those things — essentially were not done."

ABC News adds that "The IDF review also contradicts testimony from one of the two survivors of Pessi's house, Yasmin Porat, who told Israel's Kan radio on October 15 that Hamas gunmen had not threatened the hostages and instead intended to negotiate with police for their safe return to Gaza. She said an Israeli police special unit had started the gun battle by firing upon the house, catching 'five or six' kibbutz residents outside in 'very, very heavy crossfire'. In the interview, she was asked: 'So our forces may have shot them?' 'Undoubtedly,' she replied."

{{blockquote|No mother would want her son to be killed rather than be taken prisoner... You prefer to wait until he returns, even if it goes on for very many years.|Pnina Feldman, mother of Zvi Feldman, missing since the battle of Sultan Yakub in Lebanon, in June 1982{{cite web | url = https://www.haaretz.com/1.5495588 | title = Continuation of The Hannibal Procedure | publisher = Haaretz | author= Sara Leibovich-Dar | date= 2003-05-21 | access-date = 2011-10-20}}}}

{{blockquote|The nightmare we went through for 10 years is indescribable, but despite that, I would not agree to have the buddies of an abducted soldier try to save him even at the price of killing him. As long as there is life there is hope. I am also positive that the soldiers would refuse to obey the order and would not kill an Israeli soldier. What about the effect of the order on the soldiers' morale? A soldier who is taken prisoner has to know that everything will be done to rescue him without killing him.|Mordechai Fink, father of Yossi Fink, whose abduction in 1986 brought about the formulation of the Hannibal Directive.}}

In October 2019 the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, Major-General Qasem Soleimani, gave an interview to Iranian state television on the 2006 Lebanon War. In it he stressed that the use of the Hannibal Directive by the IDF made organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah upgrade their operational planning and make their hostage-taking operations more meticulous, in order to avoid getting their hostages killed by Israeli fire. Describing the 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid, Soleimani said:

The [Hezbollah] fighters had to cross the border, reach the long-watched Israeli outpost, and take the prisoners. Thus, each operation had to be done so carefully that the Israeli soldiers inside the tanks were not killed. [...] The operation had to be carried out very quickly: not in 15 or 30 minutes, but in a very few minutes or even seconds. They had to move the captured Israeli soldiers very quickly to a safe place before the enemy could reach them (and this is always very dangerous, because the enemy in such cases uses the so-called Hannibal Protocol, i.e. opens fire on its own captured soldiers and Resistance fighters, because he prefers to have dead Israeli soldiers than prisoners that he will later be forced to exchange for imprisoned Resistance fighters). Usually, the enemy is within a few minutes of the point of operation – I mean the ground force, since for the air force it could of course take much less time and the enemy would arrive very quickly. So it had to be designed very precisely.{{cite news |title=Untold facts on Israel-Hezbollah war in an interview with Major General Qassem Soleimani |url=https://english.khamenei.ir/news/7074/Untold-facts-on-Israel-Hezbollah-war-in-an-interview-with-Major |work=Khamenei.ir |date=1 October 2019 }}

• Israel Defense Forces Code of Conduct

{{Reflist|2}}

• [https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2016/10/7/the-hannibal-directive The Hannibal Directive], documentary by Benny Brunner, for Al Jazeera English
• [https://www.mako.co.il/news-military/security/Article-778ae8d014e0331017.htm Attempts to kidnap 12 Israeli soldiers were thwarted this year], N12 Israel News. 16 October 2011
• [https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2016/10/7/the-hannibal-directive The Hannibal Directive], documentary by Benny Brunner, Al-Jazeera English. 7 October 2016.

Category:Israel Defense Forces

Category:Military tactics

Category:Hostage rescue operations involving Israel

Category:Prisoners of war