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Short answer
Many Pro Palestinian & Hamas propagandists falsely attribute the number of Israeli death, on Oct 7th, to the infamous “Hannibal Directive.” and this all the while when they are denying Hamas’ own October 7th live streamed footage of the massacre…
First, the Hannibal Directive was not even in effect on Oct 2023, making it impossible to attribute the Israeli death toll to the IDF alone. While it is possible that orders resembling the Hannibal Directive were issued in certain areas, as certain sources within Israel have purported, it is impossible to verify it, making this claim speculative and slanderous at best.
Second, on the morning of October 7th, 2023, Israeli soldiers & their commanders were overcome with an unprecedented attack of massive proportions, forcing them to make extremely difficult, rapid decisions under immense pressure and with very limited information.
Third, as mentioned, Hamas’ OWN GoPro camera footage clearly shows the barbaric murders of Israeli and foreign national civilians, not even related to any IDF soldiers.
As is typical for the Palestinian & their supporters, this claim is just another attempt to whitewash the multiple crimes and atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists and put the blame on the IDF.
Long answer
Attributing all mass casualties, stemming from Hamas’ October 7th massacre, to the IDF’s Hannibal Directive is a pretty dumb attempt to shift the blame from the actual culprit- Hamas to the true defenders of the Southern Border population and Nova Festival goers -the IDF.
The high number of Israeli losses on Oct 7th 2023, combined with terror apologists worldwide and some news reports, have fueled conspiracy theories asserting that the implementation of the Hannibal Directive was responsible for a significant portion of the casualties—purportedly to prevent kidnappings.
This fabricated anti Israeli claim serves no other purpose than to whitewash Hamas’ atrocities and propagate misinformation about Israel.
The “Hannibal Directive” emerged from Israel’s history of prisoner exchanges and the strategic goal to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers. Its purpose was to deter kidnappings by signaling extreme measures to the enemy but raised ethical dilemmas regarding potential harm to Israeli soldiers. It was conceived by the IDF during the 1980s and 1990s, and was officially canceled in 2016 and replaced with more nuanced guidelines— in summary it was NOT in official use on October 7th.
While the possibility that orders for the Directive were issued by individuals in certain areas cannot be dismissed, and the fact that those were also mentioned by defense minister Yoav Galant, in an interview for Israeli TV; the simultaneous attacks across multiple locations of vulnerable targets would have precluded coordinated implementation. That aside, with extensive video documentation of Hamas mass murder of civilians and soldiers and the fact that the Hannibal Directive was not in effect in 2023, make it impossible to attribute the deaths of that day to the IDF.
On October 7th 2023, Hamas launched thousands of rockets into Israel, murdering nearly 1,300 people using firearms and explosives. The highly trained and armed terrorists entered Israeli territory and decimated entire communities by committing acts of rapes, murders, decapitation and other mutilations, as well as incinerations of live human beings and their homes. Over 250 Israeli residents were abducted and 5,432 were injured.
The IDF was able to prove that the October 7th attacks had been planned and executed with the intention to commit genocide by targeting multiple locations in Southern Israel at first. Aside of eight Israel Defense Force (IDF) bases, those included 30 different civilian locations such as:
The Nova music festival, taking place at Kibbutz Re’im, kibbutzim, Bedouin villages, and five cooperative communities( Moshavim) and town or cities such as Sderot and Ofakim.
Overwhelmed IDF outposts at the Gaza border were left to deal with explosive situations, in which local commanders and their soldiers had to act with limited to no upper command instructions.
To sum up, there is no valid proof or other explanation that could justify attributing the high number of October 7th deaths solely to an ambiguous use of the “Hannibal Directive.” On the other hand, the recorded rapes, mutilations, incinerations and murders, committed by Hamas terrorists, provide enough evidence to find Hamas responsible for the extremely high death doll.
