Israeli Military’s Hannibal Directive: Where Did This Policy Come From?

By Anagha Jayakumar

July 11, 2024

As Hamas raided southern Israel on October 7 last year, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) activated the “Hannibal Directive”, a purported operational doctrine of using maximum force to ensure no soldiers are captured, even if it means sacrificing military and civilian lives, a media investigation has found.

 

Israeli anti-government protesters mark nine monthsA person holds a sign as anti-government protesters mark nine months since the deadly October 7 attack, under the slogan "Israel comes to a standstill", outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in Jerusalem, July 7, 2024. (Photo - Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)

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The Hannibal Directive, also known as Hannibal Procedure and Hannibal Protocol, was used from the first hours of the attack in at least three military facilities that Hamas infiltrated, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported on Sunday (July 7).

About 1,200 people were killed and 250 were carried away to Gaza by the fighters, which provoked a ferocious Israeli assault on the Palestinian enclave in which more than 186,000 may have been killed over the last nine months, according to an estimate published in The Lancet.

The IDF has not confirmed or denied the claims in the report, and has said that the results of internal investigations would be presented once complete.

So, What Is The So-Called Hannibal Directive?

The expression refers to a purported IDF operational policy that aims to pre-empt politically painful prisoner swaps by immediately eliminating everyone in the vicinity of a captive Israeli soldier, even if it poses a risk to the soldier himself.

The full text of the purported doctrine has never been published, even though its existence has been an open secret that has long been discussed by soldiers and analysts. Describing the procedures to be used in the minutes and hours immediately following a possible abduction, the directive states: “In case of capture, the main mission becomes rescuing our soldiers from the captors, even at the cost of hitting or wounding our soldiers.”

And Why Is It Called Hannibal Directive?

Israeli officials have maintained that the name was chosen at random. But it is believed that the policy was named after the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who apparently chose to kill himself when faced with the possibility of capture by the Romans in c. 181 BCE.

Hannibal, who commanded the forces of Carthage, a great city in what is now Tunisia, in the 17-year Second Punic War with the Roman Empire, had taken refuge with Prusias I of Bithynia in north-west Anatolia. The Romans forced Prusias to give him up, but Hannibal was determined not to be captured. According to accounts left by the Roman writer Cornelius Nepos and the historian Titus Livius, upon discovering that he had been surrounded, Hannibal consumed poison.

When Was the Purported Doctrine Embraced by Israel?

The Hannibal Doctrine was formulated as a response to the Jibril Agreement of 1985 in which 1,150 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged for three Israelis who had been seized in Lebanon by the Syria-based militant group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC).

The deal, which was negotiated over almost a year, was nicknamed after the leader of the PFLP-GC, Ahmed Jibril. Among the Palestinians released by Israel was Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who went on to found Hamas in 1987.

The swap negotiations were exhausting, and the deal was seen as costly by many Israelis, who did not want to see a repeat. In mid-1986, after Hezbollah attempted to abduct two Israeli soldiers to southern Lebanon, Yossi Peled, then head of the IDF’s Northern Command, drafted the operational order that would become the basis of the Hannibal Doctrine.

Peled essentially advocated the suspension of safety procedures that protect IDF soldiers from being fired on by their own in the possibility of capture, as opposed to actively targeting them. In its original form, the Hannibal Doctrine endorsed the use of light arms fire to stop the abductors or their vehicles, in order to prevent them from escaping. Over the years, this meaning has been interpreted loosely by the IDF, which has even employed attack helicopters in its pursuance of the doctrine.

How Is This Doctrine Justified?

Israeli military censorship forbade all discussion of this subject in the press until 2003, when a doctor revealed its existence in a letter to Ha’aretz.

After proof of its existence came to light, the directive did not attract criticism from Israelis, primarily because of the perception that any soldiers captured by militants would not be extended the dignity of being treated as prisoners of war. It also made sense to many soldiers to avoid being captured, even at the cost of risking dying in the process.

The Hannibal Doctrine has been criticised by legal experts for its disregard for human life. Asa Kasher, the philosopher who framed the IDF’s Code of Conduct, called out the alleged abuse of this policy by the IDF on October 7 in trapping civilians while attempting to corner Hamas.

So What Allegedly Transpired On October 7, 2023?

According to Ha’aretz, the attack left the IDF red-faced, and prompted swift and widespread use of the Hannibal Directive, with an explicit order relayed across its Gaza Division: “Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza.”

In the current iteration, the Hannibal Directive allows a division commander to assume extraordinary authority to block an enemy raid, even employing heavy fire inside Israeli territory if necessary. Amid the chaos, the protocol was reportedly invoked at three military facilities: the Erez border crossing, the Re’im army base, which is home to the divisional headquarters, and the Nahal Oz outpost, housing female spotters. The IDF did not reach the fourth attack site, a kibbutz (agricultural commune) named Nir Oz, until after the militants had left.

In the afternoon, all Israeli forces were ordered not to exit border communities towards the west, with the intent of turning the area into a killing zone, according to Ha’aretz.

By evening, the IDF had reportedly launched artillery raids in the direction of civilians, and ordered a tank to fire at a home in Kibbutz Be’eri where Hamas fighters reportedly held 14 Israelis hostage.

Source:   Death Before Capture: What Is The Israeli Military’s Hannibal Directive?

 

URL:     https://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/israeli-military-hannibal-directive/d/132685

 

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