A report published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday confirmed that the Israeli military implemented a secretive procedure known as the “Hannibal directive” during the response to the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
The directive allows Israeli forces to prevent Israelis from being taken hostage, even if that means putting their lives in danger. The directive had historically only applied to soldiers, but it was also used on Israeli civilians during the October 7 response.
A “very senior” source in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed to Haaretz that the Hannibal directive was ordered on October 7. The report also cited documents and testimonies from soldiers and officers and found that the order was given multiple times throughout the day.
One of the orders came at 11:22 am, hours into the Hamas attack, which said, “Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza.” The report said that at this point in the attack, “the IDF 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.”
There has been other evidence of Israeli forces implementing the Hannibal directive on October 7, including a January report from the Israeli news site Ynet. The report said that about 70 vehicles were destroyed by the Israeli military as they were on their way back to Gaza. Many of the cars were likely carrying Israeli captives.
The Ynet report said the IDF “instructed all its fighting units to perform the Hannibal directive in practice, although it did so without stating that name explicitly.” But the Haaretz report said the Hannibal directive was explicitly ordered in some cases, including when the IDF learned someone was kidnapped near the Erez border crossing.
At 7:18 am on the morning of October 7, the IDF’s Gaza Division gave the order “Hannibal at Erez” and dispatched a Zik unmanned assault drone. The order was given again for Erez just over 20 minutes later and several other times throughout the day in response to attacks on Israeli military outposts.
In one incident at the Kibbutz Be’eri, Israeli tanks shelled a house that contained Hamas militants and Israeli hostages, killing 13 Israeli civilians, including 12-year-old twin sisters. The officer who ordered the shelling, Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, acknowledged to The New York Times that he ordered the attack “even at the cost of civilian casualties.”
A UN report found IDF helicopter fire killed one Israeli woman while she was being abducted by Hamas from the Kibbutz Nir Oz. Haaretz previously reported that an Israeli police report found IDF helicopter fire “hit” attendees of the Nova music festival.
The “very senior” IDF source who told Haaretz about the Hannibal directive did not say who gave the initial order on October 7, but it likely came from very far up the chain of command. The Haaretz report reads: “Who did give the order? This, said the source, will perhaps be established by post-war investigations.”
According to the latest figures from Israel, a total of 1,163 Israelis were killed during the October 7 attack, including 767 civilians, 20 hostages, and 376 members of the security forces. It’s unclear how many of the casualties were due to Israeli fire. The Israeli military is expected to release a report this month that found “many casualties due to our forces firing on our forces,” which could shed more light on the scale of the IDF killings of Israelis.
The number of Israelis killed was lower, IIRC, something like 900. This report still won’t kill the beheaded babies and mass rape propaganda.
Ask yourself – what weapon kills more people – a Apache Gunship firing or a few guys with a AK-47 ?
My very rough estimate of the 900 killed during the Al-Qassem raid is:
~300 IDF
~200 Settler Paramilitaries
~400 Israeli civilians
Nearly all of the 400 Israeli civilians killed appear to have been executed by IDF Apache gunships or IDF main battle tanks. AK-47s simply don’t have the firepower.
It’s not the first example of Irgun-Likud mass killing and terror of Jewish people.
"Nearly all of the 400 Israeli civilians killed appear to have been executed by IDF" BS.
At least 500 cars with signs of being hit with helicopter gunship cannon rounds. Kibbutz Houses blasted apart by heavy tank rounds.
Any child can look at the damage photos and conclude AK-47s didn’t cause that damage.
Thanks for putting this out.
Please get Brad Pearce on the podcast again – he’s just done (another) excellent thread on this on Twitter/X – and his Substack article on ‘Zaka’ was the first anywhere to comprehensively connect this sick Israeli organisation to the mass rape hoax used to justify the ongoing genocide.
Wasn’t grayzone there first?
MAX BLUMENTHAL·DECEMBER 6, 2023
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/12/06/scandal-israeli-october-7-fabrications/
“..In addition to being a serial rapist, ZAKA’s longtime leader was a profligate hustler, financing a lavish lifestyle with millions of dollars illegally pocketed from his organization. Brad Pearce, an independent scholar who published an extensive profile of ZAKA’s corruption in October 2023, described the group as “the most opaque and suspicious non-governmental organization I have ever investigated..”
Pearce’s October 18th, 2023 article referred to above – still jaw-dropping even now:
https://www.thewaywardrabbler.com/p/if-you-say-anything-to-anyone-a-zaka
Most knew this from the middle of October of 2023
Israel had always denied that they were following it.
Israel is the most moral army in the world and Biden is the smartest man alive
Yeah, just ask them…..
Yep. Max Blumenthal exposed it on The Grayzone and was attacked by the Washington Post. You are correct. It was last October.
"There has been other evidence…"
The Grayzone, The Electronic Intifada, Mondo Weiss – all exposed this in the weeks following October 7. It takes the MSM 9 months to finally reveal the truth.
You’re lucky at that.
Or, a half truth at best………………….
And it came from Haaretz. Still waiting for our MSM.
Haarez sorta qualifies. It's like the borderlands of Mainstream Media. Don't expect anything from Fox, MSNBC, CNN, etc
I'd take Haaretz over our MSM though. Gideon Levy can get pretty blunt.
Yeah if Haaretz was like our MSM, he would have gotten the Tucker Carlson treatment a decade ago. That's why I don't think they qualify as MSM; they are too tolerant of the truth.
Gideon Levy is one of the few reasons I still hold out hope for Israel
This on top of complicity in the break out itself.
Yes. That has been totally ignored other than a few mentions of it early on.
Indeed, not nearly enough attention is being paid to the virtual certainty that Netanyahu et al knew in detail of the attack ahead of time, and allowed/enabled the attack to proceed in order to secure Netanyahu in power while at the same time providing the justification needed for the Zionist criminals to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
To trigger the extermination of the Palestinians. That was the plan. Now Netanyahu has Israel on the precipice of fighting a war on 7 fronts, plus crazies in his inner circle want to use a nuke on Gaza and Iran.
Hannibal Dilectorive, you mean? Hold the fava beans.
‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza
https://www.972mag.com/israeli-soldiers-gaza-firing-regulations/
Comment – in depth interviews with IDF fighters on hideous criminal actions in Gaza
This will just be denied by Tel Aviv. Denial is part of the 'war by deception' policy. And, it works because the MSM downplays or won't even inform their readers of what's really going on. Zionism is part of US foreign policy in Wash. Here's how many Zionists are in Biden's cabinet. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=how+many+jews+in+biden+cabinet&ia=web
How do you define Zionist-a proud paid member of a Zionist organization,or something else? Let us hear who you think these cabinet Zionists are?
They are easy to recognize, they are nuts and lack human decency and have no shame or conscience.
So anyone who disagrees with you is baaaaad. Zionism was and is a just response to antisemitism
Zionists can do no wrong as far as you are concerned. Common sense is not something you understand. Zionism creates ant-Semitism, that is what you can’t understand.
the facts speak for themselves. Zionism CREATES anti-Semitism. If you want to disagree be my guest, prove your point.
Some people who hate Jews would hate Jews whether the state of Israel existed or not, and whether the Zionist ethno-nationalist cult existed or not.
Some others allow their opposition to the Zionist ethno-nationalist cult and the state it rules (Israel) to overwhelm their rationality and extend that opposition into hatred of Jews.
And still others remain capable of separating their opposition to the Zionist ethno-nationalist cult from their attitudes toward the particular ethnic group it falsely claims to represent.
Thomas, I did not limit anti-Semitism to Zionists only, but Zionists are fanatic people and cause anti-Semitism. Jake does not see it that way. Many former Zionists have left the party for that very reason too.
Zionism doesn’t “cause” anti-semitism. It is sometimes used as an excuse for anti-semitism. There’s a difference.
Many are Jewish anyway.
What I keep wondering is what it means to be truly Jewish? Is the President of Argentina seen as equally as Jewish as Netanyahu? Are Ivanka’s kids accepted as equals? Or is there a group within a group?
You have missed the point.Not every US citizen who happens to be a Jewish is active in Zionism.There is an suggestion that the afore mentioned folk are somehow traitorious.
There are many real, true Jews, they are the Jews who did not sell their souls and humanity. They oppose Zionism.
C lick on the link provided in the comment for full list.
The link is to a search for how many Jews are in Biden's cabinet, not how many Zionists are in Biden's cabinet.
Not all Jews are Zionists, nor are all Zionists Jews.
Lancet has published there death toll in Gaza, I am surprised it’s not on Anti war.
Lancet published a speculative study about the possible death toll in Gaza.
I’ll be surprised it it doesn’t show up on Antiwar.
It is based on educated estimates, based on realistic information of the # of 2000 pound bombs, and estimates of the number of people in tents. We will never know the real figures how many were killed in the chaos of war, even the archives are nothing but dust.
I wasn't criticizing the study, just noting that it was a speculative study. You're right — we'll never know exactly how many have been, or will be, killed. The Lancet speculation is probably a lot closer than the official counts, though.
It is based on educated estimates, based on realistic information of the # of 2000 pound bombs, and estimates of the number of people in tents. We will never know the real figures how many were killed in the chaos of war, even the archives are nothing but dust.
If you eat one of your own, it’s a sacrifice.
If someone else eats yours, it’s murder.
Everyone got that?
Doesn't that mean that Netanyahu was "killing his own people" which is what they said about Saddam, as justification to take him out?