Twenty years since Gilad Schalit's abduction, newly released IDF logs show real-time confusion

On the twentieth anniversary of Hamas's abduction of Gilad Schalit, the Israeli Defense Ministry has declassified military logs that offer a minute-by-minute account of the confusion and critical delays experienced by the IDF on June 25, 2006.

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there are casualties.

The newly released records, primarily based on real-time communications between soldiers in the field and IDF command centers, as well as handwritten reports, illustrate the chaotic initial response to the cross-border attack. Hamas operatives emerged from a tunnel into Israeli territory, ambushing Schalit's tank team and killing two soldiers. The logs show that the first report of explosions near Kerem Shalom came at 5:13 a.m., with initial assumptions pointing to rocket fire. Within minutes, reports of casualties emerged, followed by orders to dispatch a battle helicopter.

Approximately 90 minutes after the ambush, soldiers reported that a soldier was missing from the tank. Shortly thereafter, the "Hannibal" order was reportedly called out, a protocol that at the time allowed for extreme measures, including potentially harming the abducted soldier, to prevent capture. The Hannibal Protocol has since been modified, particularly after the 2014 and 2023 wars, to prohibit firing on abducted soldiers themselves.

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send a battle helicopter

It took nearly 45 minutes after soldiers discovered a helmet and bloodstained flak jacket near the Gaza border for them to identify Schalit as the kidnapped soldier. Schalit was eventually released in 2011 in a prisoner exchange that saw over 1,000 Hamas prisoners freed, a deal that has become increasingly unpopular in Israel since the mid-2010s. The newly released logs underscore the significant challenges and confusion the IDF faced in reacting to the abduction in real time.

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soldier was missing from the tank.