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UPDATE

Hannibal’ protocol was employed in bid to rescue Hadar Goldin

Hannibal procedure calls for massive use of force in an effort to rescue a captured soldier, even at risk to his life.

By Gili Cohen for Haaretz | Aug. 4, 2014 | 1:52 AM

After Friday’s abduction of 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin in the Gaza Strip — he was posthumously promoted to the rank of first lieutenant — the Israel Defense Forces executed in full its “Hannibal procedure.” This protocol calls for the massive use of force in an effort to rescue a captured soldier, even at risk to his life.

An IDF inquiry concluded that about 75 minutes after a cease-fire was to have taken effect on Friday morning, a Givati Brigade patrol came under heavy fire while moving toward a building where a tunnel shaft was located. Company commander Maj. Benaya Sarel and his communications officer, Staff Sgt. Liel Gidoni, were killed. The IDF now believes Goldin, a squad commander, was also killed in the incident.

Contrary to earlier reports, however, the inquiry concluded that the terrorist who came nearest the three soldiers wasn’t wearing a suicide belt, but simply continued firing his rifle until he was killed.

When other soldiers from the company arrived at the scene a few minutes later, they found three bodies, those of Sarel, Gidoni and a Hamas operative wearing an IDF uniform. They then realized that Goldin was missing. The company’s deputy commander, 1st Lt. Eitan, decided to take some of his men into the tunnel to search for Goldin, in violation of protocol.

A few hundred meters into the tunnel, the troops found some of Goldin’s personal effects, which later helped the IDF to establish that he had been killed. The tunnel itself had several branches, some of them blocked. One led into a mosque, which the soldiers searched, but it was empty. Another led to a Hamas outpost.

The IDF then sent additional forces to the area, including aircraft and observation equipment. According to an IDF source, virtually all the firepower in the south-central region of the Gaza Strip were sent to the Rafah sector, where the incident took place, on orders from Givati Brigade commander Col. Ofer Winter. This included a tank battalion and an infantry battalion, which helped search for additional tunnel shafts. These forces also laid down heavy fire “from all directions,” including tank shells, artillery bombardments and air strikes, in an effort to isolate the area where Goldin was thought to be, block all access routes to and from it and thereby ensure that nobody could either enter or leave without the soldiers noticing, the IDF source said. This was in line with the Hannibal procedure, which one senior officer said is meant to ensure that “every effort to locate the kidnapped [soldier] and the kidnappers” is made.

IDF sources said that senior commanders in the field ordered the procedure implemented in full. But as far as is known, the troops did not manage to obtain any concrete information as to Goldin’s fate.

A senior General Staff officer said yesterday he doesn’t know what became of the Hamas cell that captured Goldin. However, he added, “a great deal of fire was used in the area, and targets were attacked” in order to isolate it.

According to Palestinian reports, more than 130 Palestinians were killed in this onslaught, with some of the bodies located only in the days after it happened. Palestinians also accused the IDF of attacking vehicles en route to the Rafah hospital, including several ambulances.

Given the massive firepower employed, it could be assumed that the casualties would probably include innocent civilians.
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August 1, 2014

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Israeli military on Friday said that an Israeli soldier had been captured earlier in the day, confirming hours of speculation amid intense clashes and shelling near Rafah.

An Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an that she could confirm a "suspected abduction" of an Israeli soldier in the area, while a Hamas political leader took responsibility for attacking the soldiers but not for capturing any.

The military said in a statement that at around 9:30 a.m., "an attack was executed against (Israeli) forces operating to decommission a tunnel."

"Initial indication suggests that an (Israeli) soldier has been abducted by terrorists during the incident."

The military named the captured soldier as Hadar Goldin, 23. It said that two other soldiers were killed in the attack.

Hamas confirmed that their forces had carried out the attack, but denied any connection to the capture itself and strongly contested the chronology of events put forward by Israel.

Senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said Friday that Israel is "claiming" that a soldier is missing to "cover up it's crimes."

Hamdan said in a statement to France 24 channel that "Israel claims that a soldier was captured to hide their crimes and to divert the public opinion to speak of the captured soldier instead."

"We do not have any information about a captured soldier," he added, highlighting that no soldier was captured by any Palestinian faction.

His statements of denial come after an earlier al-Qassam statement which claimed responsibility for an operation targeting Israeli soldiers.

The Hamas-affiliated al-Qassam Brigades said earlier that the attack had occurred before the ceasefire began, explaining: "There had not been any Israeli soldiers in eastern Rafah for the past 20 days. But as soon as the ceasefire was announced, Israeli movement in the area began at around 2:00 a.m. (They moved) 2.5 kilometers into eastern Rafah."

"In response to that, our fighters clashed with Israeli soldiers in Rafah at 7:00 a.m., killing and injuring many."

"Israel is committing crimes against our people," the statement continued. "The latest are the random shelling and airstrikes at people in eastern Rafah, violating the ceasefire, and disregarding the international efforts put into this deal," al-Qassam said in a statement.

"It is the occupation which violated the ceasefire. The Palestinian resistance acted based on ... the right to self defense (and) to stop the massacres of our people," spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement.

The operation reportedly began after a Palestinian blew himself up near an Israeli military post east of Rafah, causing a large number of soldiers to move to the area to defend the post.

Following the explosion, fighters emerged from tunnels nearby and captured an Israeli soldier.

In response to the attack, Israeli forces launched a massive artillery attack on eastern Rafah, with at least 35 dead and more than 200 injured so far.

The Israeli army, security services, and the Shin Bet intelligence agency were currently said to be searching for the captured soldier, as intense shelling continued to rain down on Rafah.

The capture is the second such incident since Israel launched its massive assault on the Gaza Strip 24 days ago. On July 20, Hamas militants said that they had captured Oron Shaul.

Although the Israeli military initially denied the reports, they later confirmed that Oron Shaul had been killed but his body had not been recovered, suggesting that Hamas had the soldier's body.

In the past, Israel has agreed to release Palestinian prisoners kept in Israeli jails in exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldiers, and Hamas has called for soldiers to be captured with this aim.

Currently, more than 6,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails, hundreds of which are being held under administrative detention without charge or trial for indefinite periods of time.

The last time Hamas captured an Israeli soldier was Gilad Shalit in 2006. He detained for six years in the Gaza Strip following the capture, which occurred at the Israel-Gaza Strip border.

Shalit was eventually released as part of a deal in 2011 in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail.

In June and July, Israel re-arrested dozens of those former prisoners in violation of the deal as part of Operation Brother's Keeper, which targeted Hamas members across the West Bank.

Correction: An earlier version of the story said the al-Qassam Brigades took responsibility for the kidnapping. In fact, an earlier al-Qassam Brigades statement said the group claimed responsibility for the "operation" against Israeli soldiers but did not specifically take responsibility for the capture of a soldier as initially reported.