the Hannibal Directive By Sara Leibovich-Dar May 21, 2003 For years, the army denied the existence of this directive, and the military censors did all they could to prevent it from becoming public knowledge. There were occasional media attempts to ignore the censors and make the order public, but the veil of secrecy made any serious public discussion impossible. But then, two weeks ago, Dr. Avner Shiftan, a doctor at Poriya Hospital in Tiberias, told Haaretz Magazine ("Better dead than abducted," May 9) that he had encountered the order in the course of his military service in southern Lebanon and had tried to get it annulled. This time Military Censorship didn't blue-pencil the report. In the wake of the Haaretz article, a lively debate developed on Israel Radio current events programs and on Channel One's "New Evening" program, which in turn elicited passionate responses from soldiers presently serving as well as former soldiers. Dozens of them contacted the three media outlets, described their encounter with the order and expressed their objections to it. Some of them said that its spirit still prevailed among field commanders. The testimonies indicate that the so-called Hannibal procedure was fully activated when three soldiers - Sergeant Benny Avraham and Staff Sergeants Omar Sawid and Adi Avitan - were abducted in the Har Dov region along the Lebanon border on October 7, 2000. At 12:50 P.M. that day, a Hezbollah squad attacked the Israeli soldiers' security vehicle with rockets and automatic fire, snatched the three soldiers and took them into Lebanese territory. The abandoned vehicle was found half an hour later and the Hannibal procedure was invoked. Attack helicopters were sent into action and opened fire at cars in which the army thought the abducted soldiers were being held. "It was only after some time that I understood exactly what happened there," says Haim Avraham, Benny's father. Avraham heard about the Hannibal procedure two weeks before his son was abducted. "I visited him in the army and he told me about the procedure. He told me that the order was that if a group of soldiers was abducted, the vehicle had to be stopped at any price, even if this cost the soldiers' lives. I was appalled. I asked him if he would be willing to shoot at his buddies. He said it was an order. After the abduction, one of the officers told me that in order to stop it, they intercepted 26 vehicles in the area. I remember the number clearly. At that moment, I didn't grasp the meaning of what he was saying, but after some time I connected what the officer said with what Benny told me and I realized that the implication of the procedure is that if my son was in one of those vehicles, they would kill him straightaway."

In other words the IDF killed anything in that vicinity of Lebanon that moved in a vehicle following Sergeant Benny Avraham's capture in an attempt to kill him, indiscriminately murdering numerous non-combatants in the process.

This is wrong on so many levels its hard know where to begin. The slaughter of the residents of Alshujaiya is the most heinous aspect of this Hannibal Directive. To spare Israeli leaders the political headache of needing to free captured IDF soldiers with unpopular prisoner swaps, killing their own soldier along with scores of innocent civilians is the IDF's preferred option, and in fact the IDF's standard operating procedure. The interests of nearby civilians and the soldier's family come second to the political expediencies of Israel's leadership. That's also what Israel often accuses Hamas of doing.

How many Gazans died in Alshujaiya as a result of the Hannibal procedure? Diarist alshujaiya reported: "Three days ago it was 72 civilians found buried. Today there are more found because of the calm. No one knows the total. We don't know which families are buried." followed by this: "There is a smell of death and mothers digging their dead babies from the rubble. People are dead."

Also this: "Israel does not want another Gilad Shalit so Israel destroys all of alshujaiya." And then: "We need professional rescue teams and equipment"

A heart rending request Israel and the US make it impossible to respond to.