Hannibal Directive

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz (right) in a training exercise where the forces practiced a soldier abduction scenario. Addressing the IDF's operations forum, Ganz stated that IDF protocols do not allow for a soldier to be killed in order to prevent his abduction. The Hannibal Directive ( ) (or “Hannibal Procedure” or "Hannibal Protocol" ) is the code name of an order that the Israel Defense Forces has been accused of implementing regarding how field units should respond when a soldier is captured by enemy forces. According to an article written by Israeli journalist Sara Leibovich-Dar in 2003, the Hannibal Directive was drawn up in 1986 by a group of top Israeli officers and was officially in force until the year 2000. Leibovich-Dar quoted former Major General Yossi Peled as saying that the directive authorized attempting to stop abductors, for example by shooting at them, even if it put captured Israeli soldiers at risk. Peled denied that the aim was to kill the captured soldiers. However, since 2003, other writers have claimed that the policy is still in place, at least unofficially. Furthermore, some claim that the policy actually promotes the killing of captured soldiers to prevent the need for prisoner exchanges . After Shalit, some IDF officers see a dead soldier as better than abducted , Haaretz . 2011 Israeli army employed 'Hannibal Protocol' to prevent officer's abduction , i24news , August 4, 2014.

Secret Israeli military protocol IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz (right) in a training exercise where the forces practiced a soldier abduction scenario. Addressing the IDF's operations forum, Ganz stated that IDF protocols do not allow for a soldier to be killed in order to prevent his abduction. The Hannibal Directive ( ) (or "Procedure" or "Protocol") is a controversial procedure that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have used follow to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces. It was introduced in 1986, after a number abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and the subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of directive has never been published and until 2003 Israeli military censorship even forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times. At one time the formulation was that "the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces." The Hannibal directive have, at times, apparently existed in two different versions, one top-secret written version, accessible only to the upper echelon of the IDF, and one "oral law" version for division commanders and lower levels. In the latter versions, "by all means" was often interpreted literally, as in "an IDF soldier was "better dead than abducted". In 2011, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz stated the directive does not permit killing IDF soldiers. The Hannibal directive has not prevented the capture of a single Israeli soldier. Among the 11 Israelis involved in the seven reported Hannibal incidents, only one soldier ( Gilad Shalit ) survived. In his case the declaration of Hannibal occurred too late to have any influence on the cause of events. There is however only one case where Israeli forces have been officially confirmed to be directly responsible for an Israeli death. After Shalit, some IDF officers see a dead soldier as better than abducted , Haaretz . 2011 Weizman, Eyal (2017).

Controversial Israeli military protocol In 2016, the Hannibal Directive was revoked by then-IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot . Then-IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz (right) in a training exercise where the forces practiced a soldier abduction scenario. Addressing the IDF's operations forum, Gantz stated that IDF protocols do not allow for a soldier to be killed in order to prevent his abduction. The Hannibal Directive ( Hebrew : נוהל חניבעל , romanized : Nóhal Khanibaál ), also translated as Hannibal Procedure or Hannibal Protocol , is the name of a controversial procedure used by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces. According to one version, it says that "the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces." It was introduced in 1986, after a number of abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of the directive was never published, and until 2003, Israeli military censorship forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times, and in 2016 Gadi Eisenkot ordered the formal revocation of the standing directive and the reformulation of the protocol. Two versions of the Hannibal Directive may have existed simultaneously at times: a written version, accessible only to the upper echelon of the IDF, and an "oral law" version for division commanders and lower levels. In the latter version, "by all means" was often interpreted literally, as in "an IDF soldier was 'better dead than abducted'". In 2011, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz stated the directive does not permit killing IDF soldiers to prevent abduction. In case of the abduction of Gilad Shalit , invocation of the Hannibal Directive occurred too late to have any influence on the course of events. Israeli newspapers including Haaretz , ABC News and the UN's Commission of Inquiry have pointed out that during the October 7 attacks the IDF ordered the Hannibal Directive to be used. The IDF was ordered to prevent "at all costs" the abduction of Israeli civilians or soldiers, possibly leading to the death of a large number of Israeli hostages. Forensic Architecture, Violence at the Threshold of Detectability . "Israel accused of killing its own civilians under the 'Hannibal Directive' to avoid them being taken hostage" .