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Israel Flag (Picture: Reuters)
Conflict crimes and crimes towards humanity have been dedicated by each Israeli authorities and Hamas, in addition to different Palestinian armed teams, in the course of the eight-month ongoing Gaza battle, a United Nations-backed inquiry not too long ago concluded.
In a surprising declare, the report, issued by a UN impartial human rights physique, additionally stated that in the course of the Hamas-led October 7 assault on communities in southern Israel, Israeli forces allegedly utilized the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’ and killed at the least 14 Israeli civilians.
The report covers the interval from the October 7 assault and Israel’s subsequent battle on Gaza to December 31, 2023, when the interval of the report’s investigation ended. The report of the Impartial Worldwide Fee of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, together with East Jerusalem, and Israel, was launched on Wednesday.
What’s Israel accused of?
In its report, the Fee stated that it was “conscious of allegations that Israeli Safety Forces (ISF) used the ‘Hannibal Directive’ to forestall the seize of Israeli civilians and their switch to Gaza, even at the price of killing them.”
“Such allegations had been made in relation to ISF actions within the Nova pageant web site, together with experiences of ISF assault helicopters capturing at Israeli civilian automobiles, ensuing within the killing of Israelis,” stated the report, including, “The Fee confirmed the presence of at the least eight assault helicopters in varied places on October 7, however it couldn’t verify that they shot at civilians or civilian automobiles, together with within the space of the pageant.”
Nonetheless, the report stated that the Fee “documented one assertion by an ISF tank crew, confirming that the crew had utilized the Hannibal Directive by capturing at a automobile which they suspected was transporting kidnapped ISF troopers”.
The report additionally stated that the Fee “verified data indicating that, in at the least two different instances, ISF had seemingly utilized the Hannibal Directive, ensuing within the killing of as much as 14 Israeli civilians”.
The Hannibal Directive is reportedly a process to forestall the seize of ISF members by enemy forces.
Talking to Al Jazeera in November 2023, Yehuda Shaul, an Israeli navy veteran, stated that the directive was also referred to as the Hannibal Process or Hannibal Protocol.
In response to Shaul, a co-founder of Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, the Hannibal Directive is an Israeli navy coverage that requires using most power within the occasion of an Israeli soldier being kidnapped.
Below the directive, Shaul stated, Israeli forces might open fireplace with out constraints to cease the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. Shaul claimed that using power was allowed even on the danger of killing the captive soldier.
Furthemore, he defined that aside from firing on the abductors, the directive allowed Israeli forces to fireside at roads, highways, junctions, and different pathways that the abductors might take a kidnapped soldier via.
Nonetheless, the Israeli navy has denied any such interpretation of the directive that might enable the killing of fellow troops by Israeli troopers.
Nonetheless, Shaul instructed Al Jazeera that Israeli troopers had understood the directive to imply that they may certainly make use of power even on the danger of killing their fellow troops that had been being taken prisoner.
The directive was reportedly shared with Israeli commanders orally, with no written textual content of the foundations accessible.
Annyssa Bellal, a lawyer specialising in armed conflicts and worldwide regulation, instructed Al Jazeera that the directive was by no means an official coverage. In response to Bellal, the total directive was additionally by no means printed.
Below worldwide regulation, states should respect their citizen’s proper to life, even when they’re captured by one other state.
The directive was reportedly created in 1986, after three Israeli troopers had been captured by the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Whereas their fellow troops noticed a automobile escaping with the captive Israeli troopers, they didn’t open fireplace. The directive was created to make sure that such an incident by no means occurred once more.
The rationale behind this directive is that Israeli authorities imagine {that a} soldier’s abduction offers Israel’s opponents negotiating energy and impacts public assist for a battle.
Israeli authorities reportedly revoked the directive in 2016.
In response to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, a report by Israel’s state comptroller had beneficial that the directive be abolished due to the criticism Israel had obtained for its use and its varied interpretations by military personnel.
What does the UN-backed report say about Hamas?
The Fee famous that in the course of the October 7 assault on Israel, the navy wings of Hamas and different Palestinian armed teams, and even Palestinian civilians, intentionally killed, injured, mistreated, and dedicated sexual and gender-based violence towards civilians, together with Israeli residents and international nationals. Additionally they took hostages.
“These actions represent battle crimes and violations and abuses of worldwide humanitarian regulation and worldwide human rights regulation,” the Fee stated.
What does it say concerning the Israeli navy?
The Fee stated that Israel had dedicated battle crimes, crimes towards humanity and violations of worldwide humanitarian and human rights legal guidelines throughout its navy operations in Gaza.
“ISF’s intentional use of heavy weapons with giant damaging capability in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct assault on the civilian inhabitants, notably affecting ladies and kids,” the Fee stated. It added that this was confirmed by the mounting variety of casualties over months, with “no change in Israeli insurance policies or navy methods”.
For its half, Israel has rejected the findings of the impartial Fee.
The deadliest assault in Israel’s historical past, the October 7 assault noticed Hamas and different Palestinian armed teams kill over 1,200 folks, principally civilians, and take some 250 folks hostage into Gaza. There are about 120 remaining hostages in Gaza amid fears that quite a lot of them have been killed since they had been kidnapped.
In retaliation, Israel instantly declared battle on Hamas and launched a marketing campaign of bombardment, adopted by a floor invasion. Israel’s offensive has devastated the Palestinians of Gaza and killed over 37,000 folks, principally ladies and kids.
First Printed: Jun 15 2024 | 2:54 PM IST
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