October 7 — the documented friendly-fire and Hannibal Directive record

Two things are documented in the public record about October 7, 2023, and this page documents both, because both are the record.

First, the established core of the day: Human Rights Watch reported that Israeli government figures counted 1,195 deaths stemming from the assault, including hostages who later died in Gaza; an AFP assessment identified 815 of them as civilians. Human Rights Watch found that killing civilians and taking hostages were central aims of the planned attack and concluded that the murder of civilians and hostage-taking were crimes against humanity. It could not confirm every civilian’s cause of death, but said the available evidence indicated that only a minority of civilian deaths resulted from fighting involving Israeli forces and found no support for claims that Israeli heavy weapons caused most deaths. Nothing in the friendly-fire record below negates those findings; nor does that wider record erase the specifically identified deaths from Israeli fire.

Second, a parallel record — assembled almost entirely by Israeli media, Israeli military sources, and a UN commission — establishes that Israeli forces also killed an undetermined number of Israelis on October 7, in part through orders associated with the “Hannibal Directive,” the once-secret procedure intended to prevent Israeli soldiers’ capture, including through force that could endanger the captive, formally revoked in 2016. This page documents only what is verifiably reported, attributed to the outlet that reported it.

Early accounts: the Air Force’s own story

On October 15, 2023, the Israeli news site Ynet published an air force debrief by military correspondent Yoav Zitun (Hebrew), based on the military’s own after-action summaries. Ynet reported that Apache helicopter pilots faced extreme difficulty distinguishing Hamas fighters from Israeli civilians and soldiers; fired at people crossing the fence and within Israeli communities; and, from around 9:00 a.m., sometimes fired on their own initiative without higher-level approval. It said a squadron commander later instructed crews to fire at what they saw around the fence, targeting was coordinated in part over phone calls and WhatsApp, and helicopters and jets attacked about 300 targets in the first four hours, most inside Israeli territory. Ynet also reported that Hamas had instructed its fighters to walk slowly so that, from the air, they would be mistaken for Israelis.

On December 18, 2023, Ynet’s English edition reported the IDF’s acknowledgment that “casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7,” adding that beyond operational investigations “it would not be morally sound to investigate these incidents due to the immense and complex quantity” of them.

Yedioth Ahronoth: stopping return despite the risk to hostages

On January 10, 2024, Yedioth Ahronoth journalists Ronen Bergman and Yoav Zitun published an investigation (Hebrew) concluding that from midday on October 7 the IDF had, in practice, instructed all combat units to apply the Hannibal Directive without using its name: attempts by Hamas fighters to return to Gaza were to be stopped despite the risk that some vehicles contained hostages. The investigation reported that Israeli soldiers examined around 70 vehicles between the Gaza-envelope communities and Gaza that had been struck by helicopters, tanks or drones; in at least some cases, everyone in the vehicle had been killed. It said the number of abductees killed because of the order was unclear.

The Be’eri house: a general’s acknowledged order

The most intensively documented single incident occurred at Kibbutz Be’eri, where Hamas fighters held Israeli hostages in and around the home of Pessi Cohen. Kan’s 7/10/360 reconstruction, built from security-camera material, police calls, survivor accounts and official findings, identifies 15 civilian hostages gathered at the house. Yasmin Porat and Hadas Dagan survived; 13 people died. The UN Commission’s detailed findings state that Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, commander of the 99th Division, ordered tank shells fired toward the house even at the cost of civilian casualties, citing his later media interview.

The IDF’s July 2024 operational inquiry concluded that no civilian inside the building was harmed by tank fire and said most hostages were likely killed by the militants. Kan’s reconstruction, citing that inquiry, says shrapnel from a shell fired at the roof killed Adi Dagan and wounded Hadas Dagan; the IDF’s English summary says only that two civilians outside were “injured by shrapnel.” The UN Commission’s detailed findings reached a different assessment: the 13 were likely killed by tank shelling and crossfire, with at least some hostages in the garden killed by crossfire. Some Be’eri families also rejected the IDF inquiry’s certainty, telling ABC News (Australia) that autopsies and forensic examinations “essentially were not done.” The tank order and fire are documented; the cause of every individual death remains disputed.

The UN Commission of Inquiry, June 2024

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s report A/HRC/56/26 (with detailed findings in A/HRC/56/CRP.3) states, citing Israeli sources, that more than 1,200 people were killed directly by members of Palestinian armed groups and others or by rockets and mortars. That figure and attribution do not align neatly with Human Rights Watch’s later figure of 1,195 deaths stemming from the assault or with the Commission’s own friendly-fire findings. The discrepancy is part of the record, not a number this page can resolve. On Israeli fire, the Commission:

• verified a tank commander’s video statement that his team knowingly applied the directive by firing at two vehicles carrying militants and Israelis despite being unable to tell whether the people were alive; he said that, to his knowledge, no soldiers were killed;
• assessed two further cases: Efrat Katz, killed by helicopter fire while being abducted from Nir Oz, and the Be’eri house, where 13 people were likely killed by tank shelling and crossfire;
• confirmed the presence of at least eight attack helicopters in various locations on October 7 but stated it “could not confirm that they shot at civilians or civilian cars, including in the area of the festival,” noting that Israeli authorities had prioritized identification and burial over forensic investigation, with consequent loss of evidence.

The Commission’s own numerical wording is inconsistent and should not be silently harmonized. Paragraph 36 of A/HRC/56/26 says the two assessed cases resulted in “up to 14” civilian deaths; its conclusion at paragraph 96 says Israeli forces applied the directive and killed “at least 14” civilians; paragraph 227 of the detailed findings likewise says “at least 14” were likely killed. Paragraphs 36 and 227 identify the same set — Katz and the 13 people who died at the Be’eri house — and paragraph 96 names no additional cases. These passages are not a comprehensive total for the day.

The helicopter case the Commission referenced matches that of Efrat Katz, 68, abducted from Nir Oz: an Israeli Air Force investigation concluded she was likely killed by Israeli helicopter fire on the vehicle carrying her, as reported by the Times of Israel and ABC.

Haaretz, July 7, 2024: orders to prevent vehicles returning to Gaza

The central Israeli investigation is Haaretz’s July 7, 2024 report by Yaniv Kubovich (paywalled; corroborated in detail by the Times of Israel and The Guardian). Based on documents and testimonies from soldiers and mid-level and senior officers, Haaretz reported that the Hannibal procedure was employed at three army facilities infiltrated by Hamas — including the Erez crossing area, the Re’im base, and Nahal Oz — potentially endangering civilians as well. As relayed by the Times of Israel:

• At 7:18 a.m., after a surveillance soldier reported an abduction at the Erez crossing, divisional headquarters invoked Hannibal there and ordered a Zik attack drone dispatched; a similar order followed a second reported abduction half an hour later. A Hermes 450 drone attacked the Re’im base while Israeli Shaldag commandos were inside fighting to retake it.
• At 11:22 a.m., the Gaza Division issued an order preventing any vehicle from returning to Gaza. A Southern Command source said personnel understood that such vehicles could contain abducted civilians or soldiers, while also saying no vehicle known to contain captives was deliberately attacked.
• Haaretz further reported an afternoon order to make the border-fence area a killing zone and evening artillery fire toward the fence near Be’eri, Kfar Azza, and Kissufim; the IDF said it was unaware of civilians hurt in those bombardments.

Haaretz emphasized that it did not know whether, or how many, soldiers and civilians were harmed as a result of these orders — a caution repeated in the Guardian’s coverage. Separately, the Times of Israel noted a November 2023 Haaretz report that a small number of civilians may have been injured by helicopter fire while fleeing the Nova festival; Israeli police denied that report, and — as above — the UN Commission could not confirm helicopter fire on civilians near the festival.

In September 2024, ABC News (Australia) published its own investigation, recording on-camera accounts from Israeli officers. Former Air Force colonel Nof Erez described the circumstances as a mass application of Hannibal involving many vehicles, with and without hostages. Tank captain Bar Zonshein described ordering fire on vehicles heading toward Gaza that may have carried captured Israeli soldiers.

2025: the defense minister’s admission and the IDF’s air force probe

In his first Channel 12 interview after leaving office, broadcast on February 6, 2025, former defense minister Yoav Gallant — who was in office on October 7 — confirmed that the directive was given in some places and not in others, which he called a problem. That answer confirms use in some locations. It does not establish that Gallant personally issued every local order, a casualty number, use at the Nova festival, or the much broader viral caption that he “admitted Israel killed its own and blamed Hamas.” Gallant was defense minister, not prime minister.

Also in February 2025, the Jerusalem Post reported on the IDF’s internal Air Force probe. The report said many pilots were reluctant to hit potential hostages even after the directive was issued and gave Air Force figures of roughly 945 attacks that day and 11,000 helicopter firings. The Post characterized the directive as firing at anything moving near the border, but neither those operational totals nor that description establish how many Israelis were hit.

Video record: what each clip can establish

The archive treats a recording as a record to identify, not as a self-proving caption. These are the most useful original or earliest-accessible recordings located in this review:

1. Channel 13: tank commander Bar Zonshein describes firing at two vehicles (March 19, 2024; 1:08). The UN Commission viewed and verified this statement. It establishes a knowing decision to fire despite the possible presence of abducted soldiers; Zonshein said he did not know whether the people were alive and believed he had not killed soldiers.
2. Channel 13: the Air Force inquiry into Efrat Katz’s death (April 5, 2024; 2:08). The official Air Force finding concluded that an attack helicopter likely killed Katz while firing at a vehicle containing captors and abductees it could not distinguish. This is the strongest named, officially acknowledged likely helicopter-fire case; it is not a wider casualty count.
3. Kan 7/10/360: Pessi Cohen’s house at Be’eri. The interactive record assembles police calls, testimony and footage of the tank fire. It documents Israeli forces knowingly using tank fire in a hostage incident; the IDF and UN assessments of how the 13 people died differ.
4. Kan Bet: Haboker Hazeh full-episode audio (October 15, 2023; 1:44:02), from the broadcaster’s programme page. This is the underlying source for a translated Yasmin Porat excerpt, but the interview’s offset in the official audio is not pinned and the Hebrew wording has not been human-checked. It remains a research lead and is not quoted here.
5. N12/Keshet: Yasmin Porat and Hadas Dagan describe the Pessi Cohen house (December 9, 2023). Porat describes a volley beginning soon after Israeli forces arrived; Dagan describes fire from both directions. Their accounts document crossfire and tank use, not the cause of every death.
6. Keshet/Uvda: Shani Goren recounts a combat helicopter and gunfire during her abduction (February 15, 2024). Her first-person account documents hearing both as abductees approached the border; it does not by itself establish the source of every shot, what a pilot knew, an operational order or every casualty in the vehicle.
7. Al Jazeera Investigations: October 7 (March 20, 2024; 59:58). The relevant sequence runs from 25:14 through 34:18: helicopter mobilization and identification problems, the reported midday order, vehicles struck, an abductee’s helicopter-fire account, and the Be’eri tank assault. It is a compiled investigation published before the later UN, IDF and Haaretz findings; its footage cannot by itself identify every person on the ground.
8. ABC News Australia: Israeli forces accused of killing their own citizens under the Hannibal Directive (September 7, 2024). The package contains direct interviews with former Air Force colonel Nof Erez, Zonshein, Be’eri relatives and military-ethics author Asa Kasher. One wording caution: ABC says 70 vehicles were destroyed and everyone inside was killed; the underlying Yedioth/Ynet preview says about 70 struck vehicles were examined and everyone was killed in at least some of them.
9. Electronic Intifada: Nof Erez’s “mass Hannibal” assessment (December 5, 2023; 4:45). This is a subtitled excerpt from a Haaretz podcast. It records a former Air Force colonel’s retrospective assessment that the directive was apparently applied, not a claim that he commanded the October 7 operation or knew the casualty total.
10. Channel 12: Gallant’s full interview (February 6, 2025). It confirms that the directive was given in some places; it does not contain the broader admission written onto the viral graphics.

One widely shared clip supplied for this review fails provenance. The 13-second X repost says “leaked” footage shows an Apache killing Israelis at Nova. The sequence comes from a 2:20 video the IDF publicly posted on October 9, 2023, described as strikes across Gaza. Full Fact and Newtral report that the clip was geolocated inside Gaza, around five kilometres from the festival. It is not evidence that helicopters killed festivalgoers.

What is not established

• No investigation cited here has put a total figure on Israelis killed by Israeli fire on October 7. The UN’s short report says both “up to 14” and “at least 14” for the identified cases; its detailed findings say at least 14 were likely killed. Its separately verified tank-crew statement records a decision to fire but no confirmed death. Haaretz said the total number harmed by the wider orders is unknown. Figures of “hundreds” are not supported by the UN, Human Rights Watch, or the Israeli investigations cited here.
• The UN Commission could not confirm that helicopters fired on civilians or civilian cars at or near the Nova festival; Israeli police denied the November 2023 Haaretz report suggesting festivalgoers may have been hit.
• Burnt vehicles are not a munition analysis. A photograph of wrecked cars cannot, without vehicle-by-vehicle forensic work, establish whether rifle fire, RPGs, arson, helicopter cannon, missiles, drones or tanks caused the damage or who occupied each vehicle.
• Missing evidence impedes a complete accounting: the UN Commission found no systematic collection of forensic evidence, while Human Rights Watch said it could not confirm every civilian’s cause of death.

Sources

• Haaretz: IDF ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to prevent Hamas taking soldiers captive (July 7, 2024)
• Times of Israel: IDF officers invoked defunct ‘Hannibal Protocol’ during Oct. 7 fighting — report
• The Guardian: IDF used protocol that may have risked civilian lives in Hamas attack (July 7, 2024)
• UN Commission of Inquiry report A/HRC/56/26 (June 2024) and detailed findings A/HRC/56/CRP.3
• Human Rights Watch: “I Can’t Erase All the Blood from My Mind” — Palestinian Armed Groups’ October 7 Assault on Israel (July 2024)
• Ynet: The Air Force on Day 1 (October 15, 2023, Hebrew)
• Yedioth Ahronoth: Prevent terrorists returning to Gaza “at all costs,” even with hostages (January 10, 2024, Hebrew)
• New York Times: A General’s Account of Oct. 7 Battle for Be’eri Stirs Debate in Israel (December 27, 2023)
• ABC News (Australia): Israeli forces accused of killing their own citizens under the ‘Hannibal Directive’ (September 2024)
• Jerusalem Post: IDF carried out Hannibal Directive alongside new ‘Sword of Damocles’ on October 7 (February 2025)
• Jerusalem Post: IDF Gen. Hiram cleared of charge of blowing up hostages along with Hamas on Oct. 7 (July 2024)