The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday released new details on one of the fiercest battles waged during last summer's Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, in which the Givati Brigade's Lt. Hadar Goldin, Maj. Benaya Sarel and Staff Sgt. Liel Gidoni were killed. The Rafah battle saw the abduction of Goldin's body, and the exercise of the military's Hannibal Protocol, a directive designed to thwart the capture of Israelis by enemy agents that allows commanders in the field to take whatever action is necessary to foil such abductions. The battle took place on Friday, Aug. 1, the same day that a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas came into effect. According to Army Radio, at 9:06 a.m. that day, Givati Brigade troops, deployed in the area i to locate terror tunnels, came under fire by Hamas operatives who emerged from a tunnel opening. The military inquest concluded that Goldin and Gidoni were killed immediately, and that the terrorists abducted Goldin's body and retreated back into the tunnel in a matter of minutes, leading the IDF to find this was "a well-rehearsed scenario" on the terrorists' part. The inquest concluded that the troops who engaged in the Hannibal Protocol, which was ordered within 30 minutes of the abduction, acted professionally. The order to go into the tunnel in search of Goldin was given at 9:54 a.m. and the troops were led by Lt. Eitan Fund. A simultaneous search was conducted above ground by the elite IDF special forces unit Sayeret Matkal and by the Eitan Unit, the military's missing persons unit. Fund was later awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest honor awarded in wake of Operation Protective Edge, for his actions on that day. Givati Brigade Commander Col. Ofer Winter told the inquest committee that the troops operated under the assumption that Goldin was alive and may have been taken to a Rafah hospital. They were ordered to open fire to disrupt the terrorist cell's movements, he said. Winter admitted the orders "confused the troops and caused some uncertainty," but insisted that IDF protocols were followed in full, and that there was no need for a special investigation into the incident. On the heavy shelling of the area by Israeli jets and tanks, the officers who gave statements as part of the inquest said the strikes were effective and kept the terrorists inside the tunnels. The military probe concluded the IDF exercised proportional force, especially given the assumption that Goldin was still alive. The IDF also said that contrary to Palestinian reports, which suggested that 100 of Rafah's residents were killed that day, Israel had knowledge of 41 fatalities, of which 12 were positively identified as terrorists and 13 were positively identified as civilian casualties. The identity of the other 16 fatalities could not be positively ascertained, the military said. Military Judge Advocate General Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni has yet to decide whether to launch a special investigation into the incident.
