© Screengrab/Social MediaBar Zonshein appearing in a Channel 13 expose.
Captain Bar Zonshein recounts firing tank shells on vehicles carrying Israeli civilians on October 7. "I decide that this is the right decision, that it's better to stop the abduction and that they not be taken," he told Israeli media outlets
In Israeli military terminology, the so-called "Hannibal Directive" is the policy of firing upon one's own soldiers to avert a prospective captive situation.
There is a
growing amount of evidence and testimony that suggests that on October 7, the Hannibal Directive was implemented, at least to a certain extent, on Israelis.
What's more, growing testimonies indicate that this policy was extended to Israeli civilians in the form of indiscriminate fire from helicopters and tanks. The recent outstanding Al Jazeera investigation, "
October 7," addresses this question at considerable length.
Comment: Whilst Israel's official figures should be treated with skepticism, it seems that it has not only lost troops to injury and death, but analysts say significant numbers of them aren't up to the job, and so one wonders how many of them are out of action because they're 'recovering':