'Mass Hannibal': Mehdi Hasan asks how many Israelis Israel killed on October 7
Over 22 minutes, Hasan traces the Israeli military's Hannibal Directive from its origins in 1986 to the day of the Hamas attack, using clips from Israeli television and officials.
Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 457,487 views a day, 6.3 times a normal first day on this channel (72,238).
How Many Israelis Were Killed BY ISRAEL on October 7th? FULL VIDEO
"How Many Israelis Were Killed BY ISRAEL on October 7th? FULL VIDEO" is a 22-minute monologue by Mehdi Hasan, the journalist who founded Zeteo. It reached about a quarter of a million views in its first nine hours, several times what a regular Zeteo video usually gathers in a full day. The comments came in roughly seven times faster than on a usual first day.
The subject is the Hannibal Directive, the Israeli military procedure meant to stop soldiers from being taken captive, even at the risk of their lives. Hasan begins with its history, from 1986, after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. He then turns to October 7, 2023. He plays a clip from Israel's Channel 12 in which former defense minister Yoav Gallant says that "tactically in various places it was given, and in other places it was not given, and that is a problem." He cites reporting in Haaretz, including a podcast in which an unnamed Israeli colonel calls the day "a mass Hannibal." He also includes an interview with a tank captain explaining why he fired on vehicles that might hold Israeli soldiers.
Hasan revisits his own earlier interview with Israeli spokesman Mark Regev about the revised death toll. The final chapter is about Western media, which Hasan says has avoided the question his title asks and which the video does not answer with a number.
A shorter cut of the same report, posted as a Short the same day, also started well above Zeteo's usual for its format.
Published on Trari
Where next?
- Channel
- Zeteo
- Subscribers
- 2,270,000 ▲ 10,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 5,421,946
- Channel views, pace per day
- 411,144 (on a normal day: 1,006,208)
- Video published
- October 9, 2026
- Video views so far
- 253,715 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 457,487
The numbers
The full monologue started far ahead of a typical Zeteo video, and its comment section filled even faster.



