What is the ‘Hannibal directive’ used by Israel on October 7?

The Israeli army applied the “Hannibal directive”, which advocates the use of all possible force to prevent the country’s soldiers from falling into the hands of the enemy even at the cost of their lives, during the terrorist attacks of October 7, said this Wednesday a UN commission of inquiry.

According to the first report of the International and Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Palestinian Territories on the conflict that began with these attacks, in at least two cases Israeli forces applied this directive, “which caused the death of 14 Israeli civilians.”

In one of these cases, an Israeli tank fired on 13 people held in a house in the Beeri kibbutz, one of those attacked by Hamas and other armed groups, while in the other, a woman was killed by gunfire from an Israeli army helicopter. Israel when it was being kidnapped.

The presence of eight helicopters was also confirmed at the Nova Festivalone of the main targets of the October attacks, although in this case the report stressed that it could not confirm whether civilians were shot at from them.

In the report, the commission chaired by South African Navi Pillay also assures that the response of the Israeli forces to the attacks “was significantly delayed in its initial moments, and in many cases was totally inadequate.”

“Some small groups of Israeli security forces arrived slowly, were insufficient in number, and showed a lack of coordination,” the document concluded.

He also reported that the Israeli authorities prioritized identifying victims and delivering their bodies to their families for burial. before forensic evidence, which prevented the collection of evidence of the abuses committed in the attacks, especially regarding sexual crimes.