Israel carried out mass killing of own people under ‘Hannibal Directive’: Military probe

Israel massacred its own people under a highly controversial directive known as the “Hannibal Protocol” during Operation Al-Aqsa Storm carried out on October 7, 2023, by Hamas and other resistance groups, an internal probe of the Israeli army's failures has reaffirmed.

Developed in 1986, following the capture of two Israeli regime forces by Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance group, the directive advises the Israelis to fire on their own if they are taken captive, claiming a dead solider is better than a live hostage.

The Hannibal Directive says it is permissible to kill Israeli soldiers and settlers to prevent them from being taken captive by an enemy, including Palestinian resistance fighters.

The directive had been officially revoked in 2016. However, several Israeli outlets have reported that the actions and rhetoric of the Israeli forces during the Palestinian resistance movements’ special operation October 7, 2023 implied that the directive has been re-activated by the Tel Aviv regime.

The Israeli military probe, findings released on Thursday, found that at around 10:30am, the air force began firing on “anything that moved” near the Gaza border.

Israeli pilots carried out the so-called "Sword of Damocles" operation, which focused “on striking Hamas targets inside Gaza.”

The regime air force carried out an astounding total of 945 attacks on the Gaza Strip, with helicopters firing 11,000 shells.

The probe found “denial by commanders that they had been beaten” along with utter chaos” at Israeli military headquarters contributed to the slow response from Tel Aviv to the daring Hamas attack.

The Jerusalem Post reported that multiple Israeli military “sources have said that even to this day, Gaza Division chief Brig.-Gen. Avi Rosenfeld might not admit that his forces were completely defeated by Hamas, and certainly, he would not admit that it occurred before 7 a.m. on 7 October.”

Israeli army commanders reportedly relied on Rosenfeld for situational reports on the Gaza Strip for several hours after his forces had already been defeated.

“None of his superiors could imagine a situation where Rosenfeld was completely defeated so quickly, and Rosenfeld himself did not even acknowledge how bad his situation was until he called [air force commander] Omer Tishler at 9:47 a.m.,” the report added.

It also revealed that the regime air force “did not decide to blanket the Israel-Gaza border with aerial fire until around 10:05 a.m. … and carrying out this ‘Hannibal Directive’ did not start until around 10:30 a.m.”

The report added that by the time army commanders got “85 percent awareness level about incidents” in southern Israel, most Palestinian fighters had already returned to Gaza with captives in tow.

A number of the 251 Israelis taken captive were later killed by Israeli airstrikes and friendly fire from soldiers.

The report also noted that Tel Aviv “drastically underestimated” the capabilities of Hamas and believed the Palestinian movement was not interested in an extensive confrontation with Israel despite having intelligence to the contrary.

The report comes just weeks after former Israeli minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant acknowledged ordering the army to use the Hannibal Directive to kill Israeli civilians and soldiers during Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.

Hannibal Directive on October 7

Yoav Gallant has recently acknowledged that Israeli forces received orders to implement the Hannibal Directive.

The internal Israeli army probe into the October 7 attack acknowledged the military's "complete failure" to prevent it.

"Too many civilians died that day asking themselves in their hearts or out loud, where was the IDF?" the official said, referring to the Zionist military.

Earlier Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Hannibal Directive turned the southern part of the occupied territories into an "extermination zone."

The Haaretz report noted that the regime's forces were directed to kill their own soldiers and civilians if needed to avoid their capture by Palestinian resistance fighters, who launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023 in retaliation for the Zionist forces’ atrocities.

"Documents obtained by Haaretz, along with testimonies from senior and middle-ranking soldiers and officers in the [Israeli army], reveal a series of orders and procedures received by the Gaza Division, the Southern Command, and the General Staff until the afternoon of October 7; details that reveal how extensive the use of the Hannibal procedure was during the first hours of the Hamas attack and at various points in the surrounding area," the paper wrote.

Israeli army killed 14 Israelis on October 7: UN report

A new UN report reveals that the Israeli army killed at least 14 Israelis on 7 October, 2023.

Haaretz added that on 7 October, when the Gaza-based resistance movements, including Hamas, launched their operation, “Israeli forces opened fire on their own military bases, [and] settlements … using heavy weapons from attack helicopters, drones, and tanks. They wished to eliminate the Hamas fighters attacking Israel from Gaza, even if it meant also killing the Israelis.”

The newspaper noted that despite Israel’s plans, Hamas was able to take captives during the operation, asserting that “many of the 1,200 Israelis who died that day were killed by Israeli forces.”

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