The Hannibal Directive is one of the most infamous practices commonly ascribed to the IDF.
This highly controversial procedure was instituted for the sole purpose of preventing enemy combatants - by any means necessary - from ever taking Israelis hostage.
While the full text of the directive is unknown, and any mention of it was suppressed by the IDF censor until 2003, the directive's existence is widely known, and sources have claimed that the exact details have changed several times over the years.
One common accusation levied towards the Hannibal Directive, however, is that it allows the IDF to go to extreme measures to prevent any captives from being taken, including either putting their own troops in harms way or deliberately attacking Israeli forces to prevent their capture. This has proved very divisive, even among Israeli soldiers themselves.
And now, with the IDF probes into the events of October 7 revealing the military's use of the Hannibal Directive on October 7, the infamous Israeli military protocol has once again been thrust into the spotlight.
But what really is the Hannibal Directive? Why was it made? And what happens when the directive is followed?
Here is everything you need to know.
What is the Hannibal Directive?
The Hannibal Directive was reportedly created in the 1980s in response to the increased efforts by terrorist groups to take Israeli soldiers captive. These terrorist groups would use their hostages as bargaining chips in prisoner exchanges, where Israel would have to release a disproportionate amount of security prisoners in exchange for their captured soldiers.
Throughout its history, despite often holding the position of not negotiating with terrorists, Israel has made many disproportionate prisoner swaps, releasing thousands of security prisoners, many of whom serve life sentences for plotting or committing violent and fatal terrorist attacks, in exchange for just a few captives.
Maj-Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, at the time of its creation, was a senior IDF intelligence officer and helped develop the Hannibal Directive. Speaking to journalist Dan Ephron, he explained that Israel releasing so many prisoners in deals created two issues. First, terrorist groups began to prioritize hostage-taking, knowing the potential value even one hostage had. Secondly, many of the prisoners who were being released would go on to carry out major terrorist attacks. In fact, several of the terrorists released in the 1985 Jibril deal were credited as having helped push forward the first intifada just a few years later.
Reports indicate that there were already orders given as early as 1982 to prevent hostages from being captured by any means necessary, with one Haaretz report claiming that some soldiers said they were explicitly ordered to shoot at cars carrying captured soldiers even at the risk of harming everyone inside.
However, several highly controversial prisoner swaps with terrorist groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, most notably the Jibril deal that saw Israel release 1,150 security prisoners for just three Israelis, would reportedly lead to a major shift in policy.
In 1986, the IDF formally created the Hannibal Directive, reportedly by Amidror alongside IDF officers Yossi Peled and Gabi Ashkenazi. The order's details are unclear, but are widely acknowledge to include the following:
- Establishing security checkpoints
- Damaging roads, bridges, and other infrastructure
- Massive amounts of firepower used and directed at hostage-takers
The idea behind this is that rather than needing to wait for approval from higher up the chain of military command, IDF soldiers could act quickly and automatically to any attempted abduction of a soldier.
The exact details have always been disputed, however, with Amidror and others having explained in media interviews that the directive allowed to risk the life of soldiers, but did not allow for them to be killed.
The origin of the name "Hannibal Directive" is itself unclear. According to Amidror, who spoke to journalist and writer Dan Ephron, the name was arbitrarily created by an IDF computer. However, in an article for Politico Magazine in 2015, Ephron also drew the connection with the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who when fighting Rome, rather than being taken capture, chose to commit suicide via poison.
Amidror further elaborated the rationale behind
Why is the Hannibal Directive so controversial?
There are two main reasons for why the Hannibal Directive is so divisive both within Israel and internationally.
The first is that it deliberately puts potential hostages at risk of being killed by IDF fire. This was seen by many as unethical and viewing Israelis as more expendable, as well as essentially requiring IDF soldiers themselves to be responsible for the deaths of their comrades.
Prof. Asa Kasher, who created the IDF code of ethics, has been critical of the Hannibal Directive, claiming it violates the code of ethics promise that wounded soldiers would never be left behind. Speaking to Haaretz, Kasher criticized the Hannibal Directive, noting that the idea that it's preferable for a soldier to be dead rather than taken hostage is "monstrous."
The second area of controversy is that the Hannibal Directive inherently leads to increased risks of widespread destruction and civilian casualties.
In trying to stop soldiers from being taken hostage "by any means necessary," the IDF utilizes extreme levels of firepower, ranging from machine guns to artillery shells to airstrikes. This creates widespread collateral damage and any civilians in the area can be put at risk.
When has the Hannibal Directive been used?
The goal of the Hannibal Directive is, and always has been, to stop enemy combatants from taking Israeli soldiers hostage. This has been reportedly used on several different occasions.
However, it became far more associated with IDF actions starting in 2006 following the capture of IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit by Hamas terrorists on June 25. The Hannibal Directive was instituted shortly after Schalit's abduction, but to no avail. Following this, the procedure had to be refined.
Several incidents in the early 2000s saw the Hannibal Directive reportedly implemented both near Gaza and near Lebanon when terrorists attempted to take IDF soldiers hostage. However, it was during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 that the Hannibal Directive became truly notorious.
At the time, terrorists in Gaza kidnapped IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin in Rafah on August 1, 2014, and the IDF responded immediately.
The result was an incident that many, such as Amnesty International, retroactively dubbed "Black Friday." During this incident, the IDF used extreme measures to prevent Goldin's capture, carrying out massive air bombardments and ground assaults on Rafah's residential areas.
The order to carry out the Hannibal Directive was given by then-Col. Ofer Winter. In an interview December 2014 with Yediot Aharonot, Winter defended his actions. “Those who kidnap need to know they will pay a price,” he said, and an officer under his command further noted, “The fire was proportionate, and when they kidnap a soldier, all means are kosher.”
Israel's attack on Rafah to try and save Goldin resulted in as many as 200 Palestinian civilians killed, and Goldin not being rescued. Instead, he was killed, and his body continues to be held by Hamas at the time of writing.
Two years later, the Hannibal Directive was once again activated when two soldiers of the IDF's Oketz Unit accidentally entered the Kalandiya Refugee Camp. However, no one was killed in the resulting military action.
In 2019, then-head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qasem Soleimani explained to Iranian state TV that the Hannibal Directive has caused terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas to take extra precautions in their attempts to take hostages to avoid the IDF killing the captured Israelis.
However, in 2016, then-IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot announced that the Hannibal Directive would be revoked, being replaced by other directives to handle hostage-taking situations, while clearly specifying that they would not attempt to or risk hitting the captive.
However, this seems to have changed following the events of October 7, 2023.
Has the Hannibal Directive been used in the Israel-Hamas War?
Since October 7, where Hamas took hundreds of Israelis captive after launching an attack on southern Israel, many reports have claimed the IDF has been using the Hannibal Directive once again.
According to a report by Ynet, Israelis who were taken hostage and then released claimed that IDF helicopters deliberately targeted them as they were being taken into Gaza, which was further backed up by claims from Channel 12 that IDF troops attacked a vehicle carrying hostages, killing one.
Further reports by Haaretz, The New York Times, and the Associated Press, among other outlets, claimed that the IDF fired tank shells at buildings known to contain hostages, killing most of them as a result. The IDF officer responsible for that, Brig.-Gen Barak Hiram, was cleared of all charges for the incident.
Yediot Aharonot further reported as a result of an investigation that the IDF had applied the Hannibal Directive in practice, if not in name, ordering that hostage-takers be stopped by any means necessary. In addition, the IDF would later say that there were incidents of friendly fire.
Further reports by outlets such as Haaretz and ABC News (Australia) elaborated on these claims, noting that many IDF soldiers carried out the Hannibal Directive, notably tank crews firing at vehicles that could have had hostages on them.
Information released on February 27, 2025 following a probe into the events of October 7, 2023, further confirmed that the Hannibal Directive was implemented in the morning of October 7, with soldiers told to gun down anything that moved along the border.
Air Force pilots were also ordered to carry out the Hannibal Directive. However, the Air Force said its pilots were reluctant about hitting potential hostages.
The potential use of the Hannibal Directive on October 7 is a marked change from the norm, as if true, it would now mean that it applied to civilian hostages, rather than just soldiers.
Speaking to ABC News (Australia), Kasher noted that the Hannibal Directive was not supposed to apply to civilian hostages.
"Killing the civilian in order to foil the attempted abduction is really [wrong] … everyone understands that that's way outside of what is allowed in a democracy," he told the outlet, adding, "That's insane, it's not the nature of a democracy, it's not the nature of the IDF, it's not the nature of the command."
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.