[News] 'Hannibal': Is Israel Killing Its Own Captives in Gaza?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/hannibal-is-israel-killing-its-own-captives-in-gaza-analysis/>
'Hannibal': Is Israel Killing Its Own Captives in Gaza?
December 16, 2023
------------------------------
(Image: Palestine Chronicle)

*By Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud-romana-rubeo>*

The question imposes itself once more: Is Israel killing its own hostages
as part of the Hannibal Directive?

In a statement on Saturday, Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the
Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement
Hamas, accused Israel of “deliberately execut(ing)” three of its captives
in Gaza, “in a desperate attempt to rid (itself) of the burdens and
obligations of this issue.”

Abu Obeida’s claim could easily be understood as an accusation that the
Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu simply does not
prioritize the release of the hostages, as the Israeli leader is fixated on
prolonging the war for the sake of his own political survival.

But there is more to the story.

*‘Time is Running Out’*

In a press conference in Beirut, top Hamas official Osama Hamdan showed a
video of the number of Israeli soldiers killed by their own military in
Gaza since the beginning of the war.

Each image is followed by a number, the last of which were the three
military prisoners who attempted to escape only to be killed by their own
army in the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza City on Friday morning, according
to the Israeli military spokesman.

The Al-Qassam video, displayed by Hamdan, seems to have been prepared just
before yet another hostage was announced dead by the Israeli army.

The video finished with a Hebrew phrase that translates to “Time is running
out”.

But Hamdan’s counter was not the only reference to a timer, and to ‘time is
running out’.

The families of Israeli military captives in Gaza also have their own
timer, in a large square in Tel Aviv, where they have protested their
government’s failure to negotiate the release of their family members.

The largest protests are usually held on Saturday, and they have been
gathering momentum over time; yet the Israeli government insists on
pursuing the military option.

The military option, however, seems to be killing prisoners, as opposed to
saving them.

*Killing Baruch and Others*

As early as the first days of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, the
Palestinian Resistance announced repeatedly that the Israeli civilian
hostages and military captives have been killed along with thousands of
Palestinian civilians.

Their death was then understood to be a direct outcome of the
indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of Gaza, which, to this date, killed
over 18,800 Palestinians.

But since the start of the ground incursion by the Israeli military on
October 27, that logic ceased to suffice.

On December 8, Israeli commanders attempted
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/world/middleeast/israel-hostage-rescue-hamas.html>
to carry out a rescue operation that, if it had succeeded, would have
served as a boost of Israel’s collective confidence after the October 7
military operation carried out by the Resistance. Except, it didn’t.

It seems that the Israeli attackers, who attempted to save some of the
hostages, have managed to escape successfully, taking their dead and
wounded with them.

However, based on documented video evidence by Al-Qassam Brigades, they
also left behind a dead Israeli military captive, Sa’ar Baruch.

Baruch’s body was riddled with bullets, with bullet holes going through his
chest and even left eye, raising speculation on the method in which he was
killed by his own Israeli rescuers.

Though Palestinian and Arab media discussed this fact at length, Israeli
media analysts largely avoided it.

But the questions persisted, coming back in full force on Friday, when the
Israeli military admitted to the execution (they said ‘mistakenly’ killing)
of three of its own soldiers who were attempting to escape from Shejayia.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the prisoners were waving white
flags when they were murdered.

“A soldier who was stationed on one of the upper floors of a building in
the area has identified three figures who held a long stick that had a
white fabric attached to it. The report states that, for some reason, the
soldier felt threatened and opened fire at the group,” Haaretz reported
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-16/ty-article/.premium/preliminary-idf-report-hostages-killed-by-soldiers-waved-white-flag-yelled-help-hebrew/0000018c-7283-db38-a9fc-fba363100000>
.

*Killed on Purpose? *

One could comprehend the collective panic felt by Israeli soldiers in
Shejaiya, one of the toughest Palestinian Resistance spots, where fierce
battles have already killed dozens of Israeli soldiers.

But what is difficult to understand is the fact that the soldiers, who
attempted to escape, had already anticipated the reaction of their own
colleagues, that of randomly killing Palestinian civilians. So, they took
their clothes off in advance, raised white flags and shouted in Hebrew.

The latter are not claims made by the Palestinian Resistance but admitted
by the Israelis themselves.

But why were these three captives shot and killed at point-blank, while
giving every indication that they were not Palestinians?

Initially, the Israeli military alleged that the dead captives were dressed
up in ‘Arab clothes’, whatever that may be. Later on, Israeli media, citing
Israeli military sources, admitted
<https://www.npr.org/2023/12/16/1219826061/israel-hostages-gaza-hamas-palestinians>
that the soldiers had taken some of their clothes off.

So, were they killed on purpose? And if yes, why?

*Hannibal Directive*

‘Hannibal Directive’ is the name of a controversial procedure used by the
Israeli army to prevent, at any cost the capture of soldiers by enemy
forces.

The directive
<https://www.zonebooks.org/books/50-forensic-architecture-violence-at-the-threshold-of-detectability>,
according to Eyal Weizmann, the founder of Forensic Architecture, dictates
that “the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of
striking and harming our own forces”.

According to testimonies
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/a-growing-number-of-reports-indicate-israeli-forces-responsible-for-israeli-civilian-and-military-deaths-following-october-7-attack/>
by Israeli settlers in the Israel-Gaza border region, the Israeli military
had killed many of its own citizens as if to prevent the Resistance from
taking them as hostages.

These reports even made their way to the Israeli media.

Yasmin Porat, a survivor from the Kibbutz Be’eri, near the fence separating
Gaza from Israel, said
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-forces-shot-their-own-civilians-kibbutz-survivor-says/38861>
in an interview with Israeli Radio that Israeli forces “undoubtedly” killed
a large number of Israeli civilians following the Hamas operation on
October 7.

“They eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” she told Israeli radio.
“There was very, very heavy crossfire and even tank shelling.”

Considering that, per Hamdan’s counter, at least nine Israeli hostages and
captives have been killed by the Israeli military – in addition to the
latest female soldier – and the failure of Israel to rescue a single
hostage – the initial question imposes itself once more: Is Israel killing
its own hostages as part of the Hannibal Directive?

One may argue that the entire war on Gaza, however costly for Palestinian
civilians, also constitutes a suicide mission for the Israeli army, as they
have been killed and wounded in large and unprecedented numbers.

Either way, Abu Obeida’s statement that the Israeli army “deliberately
executed” the captives was not born out of a vacuum.

And while time is running out for those captives who are being killed by
their own military, it does not seem that Netanyahu is concerned about the
ticking timer of Hamas’ videos or that displayed in one of Tel Aviv’s
largest squares. Because that, too, keeps on ticking.

*– Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine
Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with
Ilan Pappé, is ‘**Our Vision for Liberation*
<https://www.amazon.com/Our-Vision-Liberation-Palestinian-Intellectuals/dp/1949762440>*:
Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out’. His other books
include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a
Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global
Affairs (CIGA). His website is **www.ramzybaroud.net*
<http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>

*– Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The
Palestine Chronicle. Her articles appeared in many online newspapers and
academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and
Literature and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation.*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20231217/850588cd/attachment.htm>