Two decades ago, the IDF instituted what became known as the “Hannibal directive,” according to which soldiers should do everything possible to prevent the enemy from taking a prisoner, even at the risk of killing the potential hostage. Shlomo Brody assesses this policy from the standpoint of halakhah:
[In] a well known talmudic passage, . . . a convoy of Jewish travelers is attacked by gentile marauders and ordered to hand over one Jew or face the annihilation of the entire party. The Talmud rules that all should be killed rather than deliver a Jew to his death. A Jew should not actively cause the death of another, even if this act of omission might endanger others. Accordingly, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow has argued that Jewish law would oppose any version of this directive that would call for the direct targeting of the captured soldier. . . .
That said, Jewish law does permit army maneuvers or operations that might endanger our soldiers, be it the captive or those coming to save him. As Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli has noted, the mitzvah of waging war [in self-defense] inherently calls upon soldiers to risk their own lives while allowing the government to endanger them for the sake of the greater good. As such, a Hannibal directive that takes on risks of unintended harm remains permissible to prevent the national angst caused by the capture of soldiers.
Given the profound ethical dilemmas created by the Hannibal directive, however, it pays to remember that the sum of the national trauma caused by the capture of soldiers is self-inflicted. Since . . . 1985, Israel has repeatedly released hundreds of imprisoned terrorists to return our boys home, dead or alive. Many experts contend that the continued willingness to release dangerous prisoners has only encouraged more terrorism and kidnappings. . . . The Hannibal directive is just one more reminder of the dangerous consequences of well intentioned but ultimately misguided prisoner-exchange policies.
Read more on Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Not-Just-News/Does-Jewish-law-allow-killing-a-captured-IDF-soldier-411349