[News] Another Israeli soldier admits to implementing the ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mondoweiss.net
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/another-israeli-soldier-admits-to-implementing-the-hannibal-directive-on-october-7/?ml_recipient=116970607081424243&ml_link=116970378289481458&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-03-27&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation>
Another Israeli soldier admits to implementing the ‘Hannibal Directive’ on
October 7 By Jonathan Ofir <https://mondoweiss.net/author/jonathan-ofir/> March
26, 2024
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/another-israeli-soldier-admits-to-implementing-the-hannibal-directive-on-october-7/>
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[image: Bar-Zoshein-e1711473316881-1536x886.jpeg]

In Israeli military terminology, the so-called “Hannibal Directive” is the
policy of firing upon one’s own soldiers to avert a prospective captive
situation.

There is a growing amount of evidence and testimony
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/a-growing-number-of-reports-indicate-israeli-forces-responsible-for-israeli-civilian-and-military-deaths-following-october-7-attack/>
that suggests that on October 7, the Hannibal Directive was implemented, at
least to a certain extent, on Israelis. What’s more, growing testimonies
indicate that this policy was extended to Israeli civilians in the form of
indiscriminate fire from helicopters and tanks. The recent outstanding Al
Jazeera investigation, “October 7
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0atzea-mPY>,” addresses this question at
considerable length.

Last week, another testimony involving such acts appeared on Channel 13
<https://twitter.com/RavivDrucker/status/1769307410961711463> and was
repeated a day later on Ynet <https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/syudabu0t>,
in which an armored company commander, Captain Bar Zonshein, tells of how
he fired tank shells at vehicles driving towards Gaza near Kisufim — about
2 kilometers away from the Gaza perimeter fence.

“We identified two pickups driving Toyotas, and on them, there was a large
number of people standing in the cabin, and there was a pile of people. I
don’t know whether they were corpses or living people…And I decide to
attack these vehicles,” Zonshein says.

One must point out that Zonshien’s description of a “pile” of people could
either be military or civilians, but those distinctions apparently did not
factor into his calculations. This is, of course, significant in Israeli
terms because the Hannibal doctrine had hitherto only been limited to
soldiers.

The next part of Zonshein’s testimony, however, offers a revealing insight
into his rationale for attacking the pickup trucks: “Because something in
my gut feeling told me that they could be on them.”

In other words, Zonshein thought that his fellow soldiers might be among
the captured — which is precisely *why* he opened fire.

The interviewer presses him, reaffirming they’re talking about the
possibility of targeting soldiers. “Maybe you would have killed them. They
are your soldiers.”

“Right,” Zonshien replies. “But I decide that this is the right decision,
that it’s better to stop the abduction and that they not be taken.”

The interviewer then asks whether, in retrospect, he acted correctly.

“I feel that I acted correctly,” he replies.

Then the obvious question, and to the point: “Is this the order? A Hannibal
order?” the interviewer urges.

Zonshein all but confirms it, using heavily suggestive language.

“In the order itself, a few operational steps need to be taken,” he says.
“One needs to fire at central gathering points and [military] control
points, and in case of identification [of one’s own soldiers], one needs to
also do that thing.”

“That thing,” of course, is the Hannibal directive.

Zonshein does not feel morally weighed down about his decision, he
explains, because “today, I know that we didn’t hit them,” although he said
earlier that he hit the first pickup truck.

Zonshein seems to believe that the Israelis in the truck were not harmed,
making vague references to “things that I prefer not to reveal.”

But his opaque references are dispelled by his unequivocal judgment that
being taken captive is a fate worse than death.

“It doesn’t weigh on me because this scene of people being taken by
murderers who hold them captive and under torture — that, I think, is a
much worse thought,” he explains.

It has yet to be confirmed whether Israeli prisoners have been tortured
under Hamas captivity. As for civilians, the indications so far suggest
that their treatment has been relatively humane, as also indicated
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-angered-over-footage-depicting-hamas-treatment-of-released-israeli-hostages/3068308>
by the hostages themselves
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/lifshitz-press-conference-panned-as-disastrous-for-israel-pr-win-for-hamas/>.
The opposite can be said about Palestinian detainees in Israeli captivity,
whose systematic and widespread torture has been well-documented, even
by mainstream
Israeli television
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/we-are-the-masters-of-the-house-israeli-channels-air-snuff-videos-featuring-systematic-torture-of-palestinians/>
.

One might argue, of course, that the soldier acted on his own personal
initiative and, perhaps, that his actions were based on a general
widespread belief within Israeli society of the supposed horrors of
captivity under Hamas. But aside from the allusions in Zonshein’s testimony
that suggest otherwise, the political rationale for killing potential
Israeli captives is fairly clear. In 2006, when Israeli corporal Gilad
Shalit was captured, Israel eventually exchanged
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilad_Shalit_prisoner_exchange> him in 2011
for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. This is not something Israel wants to
repeat.

The reigning notion in the Israeli army seems to be — let’s sacrifice their
lives lest they be used as bargaining chips. And, of course, their way of
getting past the Hannibal Directive’s underlying moral conundrum is to tell
themselves that it is better for them to die than fall into the hands of
“human animals.”
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