Here's an AP piece that details what happened when the IDF implemented its Hannibal Procedure sealing off a section of Rafah and then focused a withering volume of shells and bombs unleashing a blizzard of shrapnel on the area shredding anything softer than concrete.
Israeli fire on Gaza town raises war crimes claim
A Palestinian rights group argues that the Israeli army violated the rules of war, which include giving adequate warning to civilians, using proportionate force and distinguishing between civilians and combatants. Unlike in many other Gaza battles, civilians were caught by surprise by the sudden fire and sealed exits.
Givati soldiers searching for Hamas’ network of military tunnels had been ambushed by Hamas gunmen, he was told. Over the next half hour, it became apparent that Maj. Benaya Sarel, a recon officer, and Liel Gidoni, his radio operator, had been killed, and 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin was missing.
At 9:36 a.m., Winter announced over the field radio the word nobody wanted to hear: “Hannibal.”
Hannibal is the name for the military protocol to be followed if a soldier falls into enemy hands. The aim is to stop the capture, even if it means loosening open-fire regulations.
Winter ordered all forces to take territory so that the kidnappers couldn’t move, he told Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper.
The officer in the Southern Command, which oversaw the Gaza fighting, told the AP the brigade tried to seal off an area with a radius of 2-3 kilometers (1.5 miles) around the suspected capture point, a mile from the border. Over the next eight hours, soldiers fired about 500 artillery shells, he said. The military said it also launched about 100 airstrikes against targets in Rafah on Aug. 1 and 2, but did not provide a breakdown for each day.
As they ran, Azizeh’s son Hani, 23, was struck by a projectile.
“I saw his body flying into the air in front of me,” said his brother, Sami, 20.
That was just the start. His mother and three siblings — Wafa, 25, Asma, 16, and Yehiyeh, 13 — all died.
A cousin, Anam Mahmoum Hamad, had just entered the alley when the wall of a house collapsed from a drone strike. It killed Mustafa’s wife, she said, and another four children — Bissan, 10, Hiba, 7, Duaa, 3 and Obada, 2.
Others kept running, including Mustafa’s 24-year-old sister, Halima, barefoot over the scorching asphalt. The shells rained all over, in front of her and behind, she said.
Its difficult for most Americans to even imagine how traumatic that must have been for the lucky ones who survived.
In all, 121 Palestinians were killed in Rafah on Aug. 1 and 69 on Aug. 2, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and Al Mezan rights group, which compiled the names. The dead included 55 children, 36 women and five men over the age of 60.
So 190 Palestinians in Rafah died as the IDF tried to make very sure Lt. Hadar Goldin didn't leave the area alive, (when in fact he had already died).
Also see: Follow up: IDF to investigate the use of its “Hannibal Procedure” in Gaza
Alshujaiya
Here's a follow up to my earlier post: The Dahiya Doctrine: The method behind Israel's madness in Gaza
The Dahiya Doctrine: Evidence of Israel's Intentional Mass Slaughter in Gaza
Michael Ratner is President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York and Chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin. He is currently a legal adviser to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. He and CCR brought the first case challenging the Guantanamo detentions and continue in their efforts to close Guantanamo. He taught at Yale Law School, and Columbia Law School, and was President of the National Lawyers Guild.
Michael Ratner: Most of us probably have never heard of what Israeli generals call the Dahiya doctrine--that's D-A-H-I-Y-A. I only know it because WikiLeaks exposed it in the cable, a United States State Department cable from 2008, that summarized an Israeli general's statement on approved war plans, the plans that were used in Lebanon in 2006 in the Israeli war against Lebanon and are to be used in the future. Dahiya, which is the name of the doctrine, refers to a civilian neighborhood of Beirut that was leveled, utterly destroyed by Israel in the Second Lebanon War in 2006. In Israel's war planning, the Dahiya doctrine refers to Israel's intentional and massive killing of civilians and destruction of civilian villages, the intentional disproportionate use of force constituting collective punishment of a population. Michael Ratner plan leaves no doubt, none, that it involves the knowing and intentional commission in carrying out of war crimes. The killing of civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, whether in Lebanon then or Gaza today, is no mistake. It's on purpose, a purpose that is flagrantly illegal under the Geneva Conventions. Israeli soldiers, Israeli leaders, and Israeli generals could be tried for the crimes that the Germans were tried for in Nuremberg, for carrying out the intentional killing of civilians, destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Michael Ratner notes that estimates by UN officials estimate that it may take Gaza 18 years to recover from this maliciously destructive assault by the IDF. And that's by design following their Dahiya Doctrine to its logical conclusion. Making Gaza into a man made disaster area.
These two IDF doctrines are in practice largely indifferent the reckless killing of civilians while encouraging the wanton destruction of the built environment. All to deliberately punish a neighborhood in one case and an entire population (half of whom are under 18) in the other. Both are serious war crimes.
Malicious destruction on a vast scale seemed to be IDF's main objective as the targeting of 13 water desalination plants and 400 factories demonstrates. Attempting to clear residents out of harm's way doesn't excuse the IDF's long standing pattern of collective punishment following its 'Dahiya Doctrine'.
Meanwhile Israeli politicians are saying that more land theft will show those terrorists the "Price Tag" Israelis use to collectively punish Palestinians.
Bennett: Gush Etzion land declaration ‘answer to terrorism’
(JNS.org) Israeli Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) has said that the Israeli decision to declare 1,000 acres in the community of Gvaot, part of the Judean region of Gush Etzion, as state land is “an answer to terrorism."
Notably CNN has neglected to cover this development on their website.
And to further punish the PA for its unity agreement with Hamas, Israeli authorities are seizing the PA's tax revenue in part to reimburse Israel for medical care provided Gazan civilians who were recklessly attacked by the IDF during its assault on Gaza, and then allowed to be taken into Israel for treatment at the PA's request.
Israel seizes PA tax revenues, official says
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israel has seized some 200 million shekels ($55 million) from monthly tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, a senior Palestinian official told Ma'an on Monday.
The move by Israel is a deliberate attempt to create obstacles for the Palestinian unity government, the official added.
Our US tax dollars at work trying to divide the Palestinians by seizing their taxes. US diplomatic protection of Israel has allowed the 'Hannibal Procedure' and the 'Dahiya Doctrine' to become entrenched as part of the IDF's culture and traditions.