[COLUMNIST] The Hannibal Directive - additional charge against Israel at the ICC

IN the past week, three “revelations” or rather confirmations have emerged regarding the criminality of the Zionist entity.

Firstly, there was the definitive confirmation that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had indeed employed the infamous and controversial “Hannibal Directive” (otherwise also known as the "Hannibal Protocol/Procedure"), which allows for the use of any means necessary to prevent the capture of Zionist military personnel.

Needless to say, the Hannibal Directive isn’t only unethical but a criminal wrongdoing in its own right.

Furthermore, the use of the Hannibal Directive not only inevitably risked the lives of hostages but has resulted in actual fatalities (“UN finds at least 14 Israelis likely intentionally killed by own army on 7 October”, Middle East Eye, June 12, 2024).

Secondly, the world renowned and prestigious Lancet journal published an article (“correspondence”) on July 5 entitled “Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential” (authors: Rasha Khatib, Martin McKee & Salim Yusuf) which calculated that at least 186,000 (close to 200,000) Gazans have been killed as a result of the IDF operations in response to the October 7 surprise attack by Hamas.

According to the authors, the methodology applied a ratio of indirect deaths to direct deaths. Indirect deaths normally range between three and 15 times the number of direct deaths.

By conservatively (i.e., as opposed to liberally) calculating (“only”) four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported by June 19 (as documented by the Gaza Health Ministry and the United Nations/UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), the authors concluded that it’s “not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2,375 259, this would translate to 7.9% [8%, i.e., nearly 1 out of 10] of the total population in the Gaza Strip”.

It's interesting to note that based on extrapolations from the early stages of the Zionist aggression, Israeli intelligence services recognise the accuracy of the death tolls. In support of this, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has found that claims of data fabrication to be implausible.

Furthermore, the UN estimates that, by February 29, at least 35% (i.e., one-third) of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed. Consequently, the number of bodies still buried in the rubble is likely to be substantial, with estimates exceeding 10 000 (see, “10,000 people feared buried under the rubble in Gaza”, UN Office @Geneva, May 2, 2024).

By now (i.e., as of mid-July), the number of indirect deaths would likely be much higher.

Thirdly, the UN via the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has officially declared the entirety of Gaza to be in a state of famine (“UN experts declare famine has spread throughout Gaza Strip”, OHCHR, July 9, 2024). The famine situation has spread from the northern region into central and southern Gaza.

The increasing number of children reported to be suffering from hunger and malnutrition and dehydration has been rapidly increasing.

Most lack ready access to healthcare and medical treatment. Even for those that do, some of the children still die, notwithstanding.

The collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system alone can’t adequately explain the situation since the children were referred to medical treatment due to malnutrition in the first place. That is, the severity of malnutrition had reached a level approaching fatal starvation and dehydration then. Even refeeding was of no help but only exacerbates the symptoms of hypophosphatemia (dangerously low levels of phosphorus) and hypomagnesemia (magnesium deficiency), among others, which in turn is/can be fatal.

In fact, the famine situation already happened well into the early stages of the Zionist aggression against Gaza (see, “Gazans now forced to eat grass to stave off hunger, ActionAid says”, Middle East Monitor, February 9, 2024).

Unsurprisingly, given the scale of destruction and mayhem, as early as January (i.e., after “only” three months of intensive aggression), Gazans, including children no less, were already eating grass to quell hunger pangs (“Hundreds of thousands are starving in Gaza as famine arrives at ‘incredible speed,’ UN aid chief warns”, CNN, January 16, 2024; “’We are dying slowly’: Palestinians are eating grass and drinking polluted water as famine looms across Gaza”, CNN, February 1, 2024).

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths was recorded as stating that Israel’s war against Gaza has “brought famine with such incredible speed”.

According to a World Food Programme (WFP) report in March, approximately 1.1 million people in total with 300,000 in northern Gaza faced a situation labelled as the “highest level of food insecurity”. This assessment is indexed to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) for acute food insecurity.

The famine situation and the concomitance of malnutrition are simply the “symptom(s)” of the phenomenon of slow genocide (as highlighted in EMIR Research article, “Enough is enough – expel Israel from the UN”, June 27, 2024).

Recall that one of the stated provisions of Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide reads: (c) “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; [as well] (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group”. Hence, it’s unsurprising that the apocalyptic levels of destruction wrought by the Zionists on Gaza together with the inevitable famine situation – “head” the list of criminal charges against the State of Israel by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The pre-existing criminal responsibility charges – against Netanyahu and Gallant under the Rome Statute – are as follows (as per the “Statement and Applications for Arrest Warrants in the Situation in the State of Palestine” on May 20, 2024):

• Starvation of civilians [i.e., inducement of a famine situation] as a method of warfare as a war crime contrary to Article 8(2)(b)(xxv);

• Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health contrary to article 8(2)(a)(iii), or cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);

• Wilful killing contrary to article 8(2)(a)(i), or murder as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);

• Intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime contrary to articles 8(2)(b)(i), or 8(2)(e)(i);

• Extermination and/or murder contrary to articles 7(1)(b) and 7(1)(a), including in the context of deaths caused by starvation, as a crime against humanity;

• Persecution as a crime against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(h); and

• Other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(k).

In addition to the act of inducing, instigating and facilitating a famine situation in Gaza (which the ICC Lead Prosecutor has had drafted as first in the list of criminal liabilities – highlighted above), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant should now be charged for the implementation of the Hannibal Directive either by deliberate purpose or being placed in a position of knowingly doing so.

In this vein, the ICC might want to consider adding individuals from the IDF to the list of criminal prosecution also.

The relevant or applicable provision should be Article 8(i) on “wilful killing” under the heading of “war crimes”.

For example, a possible criminal charge could be framed as comprising two limbs, i.e., a) “The wilful killing of own military personnel to prevent their capture under the Hannibal Directive and b) the concomitant risking or endangering of hostage lives placed in the same situation resulting in actual deaths/fatalities”.

Otherwise/alternatively, since there’s no specific provision targeted at the nature of the criminal responsibility as per the Hannibal Directive, perhaps the ICC might wish to add an “appendix” to Article 8, e.g., under “wilfully endangering the lives or placing the security of own military personnel under immediate threat, directly or indirectly (at a later stage by a resolution of the UN General Assembly/UNGA).

The (concentrated) focus on the Zionist entity and IDF shouldn’t be construed as biased or prejudicial – one-sided. It’s simply a matter of ineluctable facts.

There can’t be a so-called “balance” of prosecutorial focus in this particular respect vis-à-vis the defendants from Israel and Palestine, if it needs to be said at all.

The famine situation, the death tolls (direct and indirect) and, not least, the Hannibal Directive by themselves make the weight and gravity of prosecutorial focus (i.e., legally attributing and assigning criminal responsibility) decidedly and overwhelmingly on the side of the Zionists.

Put simply, the Zionist State of Israel has committed far more crimes than Hamas (“if at all”). And the severity of the Zionist war crimes far outweighs that of Hamas.

In light of the definitive confirmation(s) regarding the Hannibal Directive, it’s hoped that the Lead Prosecutor of the ICC Karim A. A. Khan can now add one more criminal charge to the list of criminal responsibilities.

The ICC might also want to explore the possibility of pursuing criminal responsibility liabilities against the IDF commanders of concern, again, with respect to the Hannibal Directive.

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Jason Loh Seong Wei is Head of Social, Law & Human Rights at EMIR Research, an independent think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research.

** The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.

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