IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive During Hamas Attack, Raising New Questions About How Many Israelis Were Killed by Friendly Fire
Norman Finkelstein, the scholar, described the directive: Just blow up everything in sight for a wide radius in order to kill the Israeli who is captured
The Israeli military ordered the Hannibal Directive during the Hamas attack last October, which essentially means the IDF will open fire with reckless abandon to prevent the capture of soldiers during an attack — raising new questions about how many troops and civilians were killed by friendly fire during the raid.
Norman Finkelstein, the scholar, once described the directive: Just blow up everything in sight for a wide radius in order to kill the Israeli who is captured.
Haaretz, the Israeli paper, published a report Sunday citing documents and testimonies from soldiers.
Yaniv Kubovich, the reporter, described a chaotic scene when the Hamas attack was launched, and “communication networks could not keep up with the flow of information.”
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But at 11:22 a.m. on 7 October, Israel’s Gaza Division sent a message that said, “Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza.”
“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,” a source told the paper. “I can't say there was a clear instruction, but everyone knew what it meant to not let any vehicles return to Gaza.”
Hannibal directives were given to respond to kidnappings at three army facilities infiltrated by Hamas, the paper said.
The paper noted that it is unclear how many civilians or soldiers were hit by Israeli fire. Around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage.
Bassem Youseff, the political commentator, posted on X that those who raised questions about the possibility that Israel ordered the directive were called “liars and antisemites.”
“When we refused the lies of Zaki , Hatzullah United x Sheryl Sandberg Mass rape hoax movie and , the New York Times Lies, Anthony Blinken and Biden lies. Me and many others talked about the lies of the decapitated babes and the babies in ovens. They lied they lied they lied and not a single mainstream American media outlet will even bother to translate TRANSLATE the reports of Israeli media. They are complicit in the daily genocide. Blood on all their hands,” he posted.
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In October, Electronic Intifada cited an interview between Yasmin Porat, the Kibbutz Be’eri survivor who told Israeli radio that Israel “undoubtedly” killed a large number of their own civilians during the attack.
Porat said in the interview that Palestinian fighters intended to “kidnap us to Gaza. Not to murder us.”
She said Israelis were treated humanely.
Asaf Ronel, a former writer for Haaretz posted that while there are no precise numbers about how many Israelis were killed by friendly fire, “it can be assumed to be in the many 10s, if not 100s killed this way.”
There was an incident at the Be’eri kibbutz that included an Israeli brigadier general ordering a tank to fire into a house the has Hamas members and 14 Israelis inside, The Guardian reported. Thirteen hostages were killed. The IDF is expected to release information into the incident later this month.
TRENDPOST: It is worth noting that the Western media will not be quick to report on this story because it puts Israel in a horrible light.
Philip Giraldi, the former CIA analyst, wrote in November about suspicions that many of the Israelis were killed by friendly fire.
Israeli survivors of the attack have told journalists that they were treated well when captured by Hamas and that the real killing began when Israeli Army units including tanks, artillery and helicopters counter-attacked Hamas, creating a brutal cross fire referred to in the trade as “friendly fire” which killed many if not most of the civilians. Houses in one kibbutz, where civilians were sheltering, were largely destroyed by fire from heavy weapons, which Hamas did not possess.
What we now also know from a growing body of evidence obtained from the Israeli media and eyewitnesses is that the Israeli military appear to have been overwhelmed by the day’s events. The reaction may have triggered an apparently long-standing policy referred to as the “Hannibal procedure” that seeks to prevent Israeli soldiers from being taken captive due to the high price the Israeli public insists on paying to make sure that the soldier-prisoners are returned. As a result, the military command has authorization to order Israeli troops to kill fellow soldiers rather than allow them to be taken prisoner. For the same reason, Hamas expends a great deal of energy in trying to find innovative ways to seize soldiers.
The possible reality that the Israeli military killed many of its own soldiers and civilians is, of course, being suppressed in the mainstream and by politicians eager to assist Israel in the Gazan genocide, but it is nevertheless out there. There is, however, another part of the story that is devastating in terms of its implications, and that is the immediate response to the crisis by offering to send Israel $14.5 billion to help in its defense, an incomprehensibly large figure that appears to have been pulled out of some lobbyist’s behind, which translates to performing genocide in Gaza and committing a host of war crimes along the way.