Hannibal Protocol

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Lore & Background

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. According to Haaretz reporter Leibovich-Dar, the motivation for the directive was the capture of two Israeli soldiers during a Hezbollah ambush in South Lebanon in June 1986. Both soldiers presumably died during the attack, and their bodies were returned to Israel in an exchange with Hezbollah in 1996. The directive developers were three top officers of the IDF Northern Command: Major General Yossi Peled, the command's operations officer; Colonel Gabi Ashkenazi; and the intelligence officer, Colonel Yaakov Amidror. The order was secret, and its existence was denied by Israeli military authorities.

In Their Own Story

In the 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 reported that during the 7 October 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 civilians. A July 2024 Haaretz investigation revealed that the IDF ordered the Hannibal Directive to be used during the October 7 attacks. In September 2024 ABC News in Australia reported on the use of the Hannibal Directive on October 7. The invocation of the Hannibal Directive in the 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid had far-reaching consequences. An IDF tank sent in pursuit of the abductors was attacked, killing its crew. Attempts to rescue the bodies of the tank crew led to further IDF losses. By the time the Israeli government convened to decide how to respond to the attack, Israel – according to former head of Israeli military intelligence Shlomo Gazit – "was already at war."

Reader's Guide

The Hannibal Directive was officially revoked by the military in 2016. According to The Times of Israel, the directive was replaced by three separate directives in January 2017. They were named "True Test", "Tourniquet" and "Guardian of life" and dealt with abductions in the West Bank and outside Israel in peace time and a general directive for war time. Very little is known about the content of these directives or the eventual differences between them. One general difference between the new and the previous Hannibal directive is that now it is clearly stated that, in case of an attempted abduction, soldiers should fire at the abductors "while avoiding hitting the captive." Dr. Avner Shiftan, an army physician with the rank of major, came across the Hannibal directive while on reserve duty in South Lebanon in 1999. In army briefings he "became aware of a procedure ordering soldiers to kill any IDF soldier if he should be taken captive by Hezbollah." He contacted Asa Kasher, the Israeli philosopher noted for his authorship of Israel Defense Forces' Code of Conduct, who "found it difficult to believe that such an order exists" since this "is wrong ethically, legally and morally."

Did You Know?

• The Hannibal Directive was introduced in 1986 after a number of abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges.
• Until 2003, Israeli military censorship forbade any discussion of the Hannibal Directive in the press.
• The directive was developed by three top officers of the IDF Northern Command: Major General Yossi Peled, Colonel Gabi Ashkenazi, and Colonel Yaakov Amidror.
• In 2016, IDF Chief Of Staff Gadi Eisenkot ordered the formal revocation of the standing directive and the reformulation of the protocol.
• The Hannibal Directive was replaced by three separate directives in January 2017 named 'True Test', 'Tourniquet', and 'Guardian of life'.