Australian Broadcasting Corporation: New evidence of Israel’s uses of Hannibal Directive

An investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) confirmed that the Israeli army used the “Hannibal Directive” on October 7, which led to the killing of Israelis, which Hamas considered on Sunday new evidence of the lie of the occupation’s narrative.

The Hannibal Directive, Procedure, or Mechanism is a military directive that allows the Israeli army to carry out attacks that could threaten the lives of Israeli soldiers in order to prevent them from being held captive.

On that day, Hamas attacked military bases and settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip, killing and capturing Israelis, in response to “the daily crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and their holy sites, especially al Aqsa Mosque,” ​​according to Hamas.

An investigation published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) website on Friday concluded that the Israeli army used the “Hannibal Directive” on October 7 to prevent Hamas from capturing Israeli soldiers, which led to the killing of Israeli settlers.

“They interpreted the Hannibal Directive as a deliberate killing of the soldier to thwart an attempt to kidnap him, and this is legally and morally wrong,” Israeli philosopher Asa Kasher, who wrote the Israeli military’s so-called code of ethics, told ABC.

“We know that at least one hostage was killed by a shell,” said Omri Shafroni, a survivor of an Israeli tank shelling of a house in the settlement of Be’eri on October 7.

According to ABC, three of Shafroni’s relatives were killed in the house, while he was hiding on the other side of the settlement with his wife and children.

“There are others Israelis who we don’t know yet, and may never know, exactly who killed them,” Shafroni added.

He expressed his dismay at the Israeli army’s decision to allow the use of heavy munitions in bombing homes in Be’eri.

Commenting on the investigation results, Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that it was a new confirmation to be added to the many reports that were issued confirming that the occupation army killed dozens of settlers as part of its criminal approach.

Last July, the Israeli left-wing newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israeli army ordered the activation of the “Hannibal Directive,” which led to many of the kidnapped people being exposed to Israeli gunfire, even if they weren’t the target.

Hamas added that the ABC investigation is “further evidence of the occupation’s false narrative and the deception and misleading practices it practices to cover up its failure, failure and confusion on that day, which led to the killing of dozens of its citizens under the pretext and fear that they would be captured by the resistance”.

Hamas continued, “In light of this investigation, we reaffirm that the false Zionist narrative about the events of October 7 aimed to demonize the resistance and our Palestinian people to justify the war of extermination against the Gaza Strip”.

Hamas added, “This is confirmation that the war criminal (Benjamin) Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister) and his Nazi army did not care about their citizens who were shot by their army, and this continues to be implemented to thwart the chances of achieving a ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange”.

Hamas called on the international community to “stop the genocide being committed in the Gaza Strip, and hold the criminal Netanyahu and the occupation leaders accountable for their ongoing crimes against children and defenseless civilians”.

In contempt of the international community, Israel continues the war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate halt to it, and the International Court of Justice orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and to improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Tel Aviv is also challenging the request of the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and its Defense Minister Yoav Galant for their responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into the largest prison in the world, besieging it for the 18th year, and its war has forced about two million of its citizens, numbering about 2.3 million Palestinians, to flee in catastrophic conditions, with a severe and deliberate shortage of food, water and medicine.