Army was ordered to kill Israelis on 7 October, defense minister confirms

Israeli troops were ordered to shoot and kill captive Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023, Israel’s then defence minister admitted this week.

The order to carry out Israel’s so-called Hannibal Directive was issued “tactically” and “in various places” next to Gaza, Yoav Gallant told Israel’s Channel 12 on Thursday. “In other places it was not given, and that is a problem,” he continued.

Questioning Gallant, journalist Amit Segal clarified for viewers that “the Hannibal Directive says to shoot to kill when there is a vehicle containing an Israeli hostage” – a characterization Gallant did not contest.

Gallant was speaking in his first interview with Israeli television since being fired in November.

You can watch a subtitled clip in the video above or the full interview in Hebrew on the Channel 12 website.

First public admission

Contrary to Gallant’s statement that the Hannibal Directive was unevenly applied in different areas, Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported in January 2024 that at midday on 7 October, an unambiguous order was given from the high command of the Israeli military to invoke the Hannibal Directive across the entire region.

The order came “even if this means the endangerment or harming of the lives of civilians in the region, including the captives themselves,” Israeli journalists Ronen Bergman and Yoav Zitun reported.

In July, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the order “not a single vehicle can return to Gaza” was issued to the Gaza Division of the Israeli military at 11:22 am that day.

But Gallant’s new statement is highly significant, as the first public admission by a contemporary Israeli minister that their troops were ordered to fire on their own people on 7 October.

A military doctrine first issued in secret by Israeli generals in the 1980s, the Hannibal Directive is Israel’s national murder-sucide pact.

Initially it stated that, when issued, Israeli troops could fire on other Israeli troops who had just been captured by Palestinian or other Arab resistance fighters.

Unprecedented

But on 7 October 2023, in an unprecedented military offensive, Palestinian fighters recaptured land next to the Gaza Strip, which had first been lost to the Israelis in 1948.

Roughly 250 Israeli soldiers and civilians were captured by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, in what they called Operation Al Aqsa Flood.

Israel’s response was to reactivate and unleash the Hannibal doctrine, extending it to Israeli civilians, as well as soldiers.

Fire from Israeli helicopters, drones, tanks and even ground troops was deliberately unleashed, in a failed attempt to prevent Palestinian fighters from taking live Israeli captives who would then be later exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

Roughly 1,100 Israelis were killed. It is still unclear exactly how many of these were killed by Israelis and how many by Palestinians. One year on, an investigation by The Electronic Intifada found that at least “hundreds” were killed by Israel.

Official figures, published for the first time last month, revealed that the Israeli Air Force fired 11,000 shells, dropped more than 500 heavy one-ton bombs and launched 180 missiles “during the fighting” on 7 October.

An independent United Nations inquiry last year criticized Israeli authorities for barring them access to the country.

“Israeli officials not only refused to cooperate with the commission’s investigation but also reportedly barred medical professionals and others from being in contact” with them, the inquiry’s report stated.

With translation by David Sheen.