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131-685: The division played a critical role in the 1973 Yom Kippur War in the Sinai, under Avraham "Bren" Adan . Although attached to the Central Command at the time, the 162nd Division participated in battles against Hezbollah , from July to August 2006, in the western sector of southern Lebanon and north of Bint Jbeil . The division reached the strategic Litani River, that separates Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon from central Lebanon. The division participated in skirmishes with Hezbollah as late as September 27. This Israel Defense Forces -related article

262-553: A normalization agreement . However, Syria pressured President Amine Gemayel into nullifying the truce in March 1984. By 1985, Israeli forces withdrew to a 15 km wide southern strip of Lebanon, following which the conflict continued on a lower scale, with relatively low casualties on both sides. In 1993 and 1996, Israel launched major operations against the Shiite militia of Hezbollah , which had become an emergent threat. In May 2000,

393-647: A peace agreement , which stipulated mutual cooperation, an end of hostilities, the fixing of the Israel-Jordan border, and a resolution of other issues. The conflict between them had cost roughly 18.3 billion dollars. Its signing is also closely linked with the efforts to create peace between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representing the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). It

524-710: A peace treaty in March 1979. Under its terms, the Sinai Peninsula returned to Egyptian hands, and the Gaza Strip remained under Israeli control, to be included in a future Palestinian state . The agreement also provided for the free passage of Israeli ships through the Suez Canal and recognition of the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as international waterways. In October 1994, Israel and Jordan signed

655-604: A semi-official coalition to confront Iran. This move and the Israeli normalization with Gulf states was marked by some as the fading of the Arab–Israeli conflict. The roots of the modern Arab–Israeli conflict lie in the tensions between Zionism and Palestinian nationalism ; the latter having risen in response to Zionism towards the end of the 19th century. Territory regarded by the Jewish people as their historical homeland

786-534: A Middle East war, and on 6 October 1973, Kissinger sent a further dispatch discouraging a preemptive strike. Israel was totally dependent on the United States for military resupply and sensitive to anything that might endanger that relationship. At 10:15 am, Meir met with American ambassador Kenneth Keating to inform him that Israel did not intend to preemptively start a war and asked that American efforts be directed at preventing war. Kissinger urged

917-505: A cautious counterattack for the following day by Avraham Adan 's 162nd Armored Division . The same day, the IAF carried out Operation Tagar , aiming to neutralize Egyptian Air Force bases and its missile defense shield. Arab%E2%80%93Israeli conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict is the phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between various Arab countries and Israel , which escalated during

1048-525: A coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria . Most of the fighting occurred in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights , territories occupied by Israel in 1967 . Some combat also took place in Egypt and northern Israel . Egypt aimed to secure a foothold on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal and use it to negotiate the return of the Sinai Peninsula . The war started on 6 October 1973, when

1179-606: A complicated system of roadblocks and checkpoints around major Palestinian areas to deter violence and protect Israeli settlements. However, since 2008, the IDF has slowly transferred authority to Palestinian security forces. Israel's then prime minister Ariel Sharon began a policy of disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2003. This policy was fully implemented in August 2005. Sharon's announcement to disengage from Gaza came as

1310-522: A full withdrawal by Israel from the occupied territories (including East Jerusalem) and a "just settlement" of the Palestinian refugee problem based on UN Resolution 194 . In the 1990s and early 2000s, a ceasefire had been largely maintained between Israel and Syria , while limited warfare continued in Lebanon against Iranian proxy militias. Despite the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan ,

1441-502: A halt by a fresh ceasefire on 24 October. Anticipating a swift Israeli armored counterattack by three armored divisions, the Egyptians had armed their assault force with large numbers of man-portable anti-tank weapons— rocket-propelled grenades and the less numerous but more advanced Sagger guided missiles, which proved devastating to the first Israeli armored counterattacks. Each of the five infantry divisions that were to cross

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1572-633: A junior officer proposed using high pressure water cannons. The idea was tested and found to be a sound one, and several high pressure water cannons were imported from Britain and East Germany. The water cannons effectively breached the sand walls using water from the canal. At 2:00 pm on 6 October, Operation Badr began with a large airstrike. More than 200 Egyptian aircraft conducted simultaneous strikes against three airbases, Hawk missile batteries, three command centers, artillery positions, and several radar installations. Airfields at Refidim and Bir Tamada were temporarily put out of service, and damage

1703-416: A peace agreement with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir reacted to the overture by forming a committee to examine the proposal and vet possible concessions. When the committee unanimously concluded that Israel's interests would be served by full withdrawal to the internationally recognized lines dividing Israel from Egypt and Syria, returning the Gaza Strip and, in a majority view, returning most of

1834-633: A possibility of a "real, permanent peace" between Israel and the Arab states. Armed hostilities continued on a limited scale after the Six-Day War and escalated into the War of Attrition , an attempt to wear down the Israeli position through long-term pressure. In December 1970, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had signaled in an interview with The New York Times that, in return for a total withdrawal from

1965-557: A promise from Arab leaders that they would be able to return when the war had been won, and also in part due to attacks on Palestinian villages and towns by Israeli forces and Jewish militant groups. During the war, official Israeli documents subsequently uncovered by Benny Morris and Benjamin Kedar have revealed that Israel conducted a biological warfare campaign codenamed "Cast Thy Bread" to covertly poison Palestinian wells to prevent villagers from returning. Many Palestinians fled from

2096-423: A similar initiative four days later, on 8 February 1971. Egypt responded by accepting much of Jarring's proposals, though differing on several issues, regarding the Gaza Strip , for example, and expressed its willingness to reach an accord if it also implemented the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 . This was the first time an Arab government had gone public declaring its readiness to sign

2227-503: A surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur , the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The Israeli military were caught off guard and unprepared, and took about three days to fully mobilize. This led other Arab states to send troops to reinforce the Egyptians and Syrians. In addition, these Arab countries agreed to enforce an oil embargo on industrial nations including the U.S., Japan and Western European Countries. These OPEC countries increased

2358-651: A threat to their homeland and their identity as a people. Moreover, Jewish policies of purchasing land and prohibiting the employment of Arabs in Jewish-owned industries and farms greatly angered the Palestinian Arab communities. Demonstrations were held as early as 1920, protesting what the Arabs felt were unfair preferences for the Jewish immigrants set forth by the British mandate that governed Palestine at

2489-616: A tremendous shock to his critics both on the left and on the right. A year previously, he had commented that the fate of the most far-flung settlements in Gaza, Netzararem and Kfar Darom, was regarded in the same light as that of Tel Aviv. The formal announcements to evacuate seventeen Gaza settlements and another four in the West Bank in February 2004 represented the first reversal for the settler movement since 1968, dividing Sharon's party. It

2620-607: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a specific military unit is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Yom Kippur War Egyptian front International front The Yom Kippur War , also known as the Ramadan War , the October War , the 1973 Arab–Israeli War , or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War , was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and

2751-709: Is also considered by the Pan-Arab movement as historically and presently belonging to the Arab Palestinians . Palestine had been under the control of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years, until its partitioning in the aftermath of the Great Arab Revolt during World War I . During the closing years of their empire, the Ottomans began to espouse their Turkish ethnic identity, asserting

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2882-482: Is known as the Black September in Arab history and sometimes is referred to as the "era of regrettable events". It was a month when Hashemite King Hussein of Jordan moved to quash the autonomy of Palestinian organisations and restore his monarchy's rule over the country. The violence resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, the vast majority Palestinians. Armed conflict lasted until July 1971 with

3013-765: The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine . In response to Arab pressure, the British Mandate authorities greatly reduced the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine (see White Paper of 1939 and the SS ; Exodus ). These restrictions remained in place until the end of the mandate, a period which coincided with the Nazi Holocaust and the flight of Jewish refugees from Europe. As a consequence, most Jewish entrants to Mandatory Palestine were considered illegal (see Aliyah Bet ), causing further tensions in

3144-542: The AT-3 Sagger anti-tank guided missile from the Soviet Union and improving its military tactics, based on Soviet battlefield doctrines. Political generals, who had in large part been responsible for the rout in 1967, were replaced with competent ones. The Soviets thought little of Sadat's chances in any war. They warned that any attempt to cross the heavily fortified Suez Canal would incur massive losses. Both

3275-516: The Agranat Commission , Brigadier General Yisrael Lior (Meir's military secretary/attaché) claimed that Mossad knew from Marwan that an attack was going to occur under the guise of a military drill a week before it occurred, but the process of passing along the information to the prime minister's office failed. On the night of 5–6 October, Marwan incorrectly informed Zamir that a joint Syrian-Egyptian attack would take place at sunset. It

3406-780: The Egyptian Air Force in a surprise attack, then turned east to destroy the Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces. This strike was the crucial element in Israel's victory in the Six-Day War . At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem ), Shebaa farms , and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of

3537-647: The Free Lebanon Army forced the PLO to retreat north of the Litani river. In 1981 another conflict between Israel and the PLO broke out, which ended with a ceasefire agreement that did not solve the core of the conflict. In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon in alliance with Christian factions of the Lebanese government. Within two months the PLO agreed to withdraw thence. In March 1983, Israel and Lebanon signed

3668-532: The Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula. The United States and the United Nations soon pressured it into a ceasefire. Israel agreed to withdraw from Egyptian territory. Egypt agreed to freedom of navigation in the region and the demilitarization of the Sinai. The United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was created and deployed to oversee the demilitarization. The UNEF was only deployed on the Egyptian side of

3799-474: The Gulf War in 1991, Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles into Israel, in the hopes of uniting the Arab world against the coalition which sought to liberate Kuwait . At the behest of the United States, Israel did not respond to this attack in order to prevent a greater outbreak of war. In 1970, following an extended civil war , King Hussein expelled the Palestine Liberation Organization from Jordan. September 1970

3930-628: The Gulf of Aqaba , in contravention of the Constantinople Convention of 1888 . Many argued that this was also a violation of the 1949 Armistice Agreements . On 26 July 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company , and closed the canal to Israeli shipping. Israel responded on 29 October 1956, by invading the Sinai Peninsula with British and French military support. During the Suez Crisis , Israel captured

4061-871: The Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and approved a proclamation that declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel , to be known as the State of Israel . The declaration was made by David Ben-Gurion , the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization . There was no mention of the borders of the new state other than that it was in Eretz Israel. An official cablegram from

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4192-529: The Khartoum Arab Summit , was to reject any peaceful settlement with the State of Israel. The eight participating states—Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, and Sudan—passed a resolution that would later become known as the "three nos": there would be no peace, no recognition and no negotiation with Israel. Prior to that, King Hussein of Jordan had stated that he could not rule out

4323-732: The Munich Olympics Massacre in 1972, and the Entebbe Hostage Taking in 1976, with over 100 Jewish hostages of different nationalities kidnapped and held in Uganda. In December 1987, the First Intifada began. The First Intifada was a mass Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in the Palestinian territories . The rebellion began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza and

4454-469: The Sinai Desert with two armies (both corps-sized by western standards, included the 2nd Infantry Division in the northern Second Army). By the following morning, some 850 tanks had crossed the canal. In his account of the war, Saad El Shazly noted that by the morning of 7 October, the Egyptians had lost 280 soldiers and 20 tanks, though this account is disputed. Most Israeli soldiers defending

4585-476: The Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, returning the region to the way it was in 1956 when Israel was blockaded. On 30 May 1967, Jordan signed a mutual defense pact with Egypt. Egypt mobilized Sinai units, crossing UN lines (after having expelled the UN border monitors) and mobilized and massed on Israel's southern border. On 5 June, Israel launched an attack on Egypt. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) destroyed most of

4716-714: The 1920s. Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict arose from the conflicting claims by these movements to the land that formed the British Mandatory Palestine , which was regarded by the Jewish people as their ancestral homeland , while at the same time it was regarded by the Pan-Arab movement as historically and currently belonging to the Palestinians, and in the Pan-Islamic context, as Muslim lands . The sectarian conflict within

4847-530: The 1973 Yom Kippur War . Peace agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, resulting in Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and the abolition of the military governance system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip , in favor of Israeli Civil Administration and consequent unilateral annexation of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem . The nature of the conflict has shifted over

4978-468: The 20th century. The roots of the Arab–Israeli conflict have been attributed to the support by Arab League member countries for the Palestinians , a fellow League member, in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict ; this in turn has been attributed to the simultaneous rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism towards the end of the 19th century, though the two national movements had not clashed until

5109-551: The American response was a call for a cease-fire in place. The Egyptian units generally would not advance beyond a shallow strip for fear of losing the protection of their SAM batteries, which were situated on the west bank of the canal. In the Six-Day War, the Israeli Air Force had pummeled the defenseless Arab armies; this time, Egypt had heavily fortified their side of the ceasefire lines with SAM batteries provided by

5240-724: The Arab World in December 1947, and Jewish communities were hit particularly hard in Aleppo and British-controlled Aden , with hundreds of dead and injured. In Libya , Jews were deprived of citizenship, and in Iraq, their property was seized. Egypt expelled most of its foreign community, including Jews, after the Suez War in 1956, while Algeria denied its French citizens, including Jews, of citizenship upon its independence in 1962. Over

5371-441: The Arab coalition launched a surprise attack on Israel during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur , which coincided with the 10th day of Ramadan . The United States and Soviet Union engaged in massive resupply efforts for their allies (Israel and the Arab states, respectively), which heightened tensions between the two superpowers. Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed their respective ceasefire lines with Israel, advancing into

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5502-527: The Arab nations from part of the occupied territories, thus extending its borders beyond the original UNSCOP partition. By December 1948, Israel controlled most of the portion of Mandate Palestine west of the Jordan River . The remainder of the Mandate consisted of Jordan, the area that came to be called the West Bank (controlled by Jordan), and the Gaza Strip (controlled by Egypt). Before and during this conflict, 713,000 Palestinian Arabs fled their original lands to become Palestinian refugees , in part due to

5633-448: The Bar Lev Line became casualties, and some 200 were taken prisoner. In the subsequent days, some defenders of the Bar Lev Line managed to break through the Egyptian encirclement and return to their lines or were extracted during later Israeli counterattacks. For the next several days, the IAF played a minimal role in the fighting, largely because it was needed to deal with the simultaneous, and ultimately more threatening, Syrian attack in

5764-429: The British Mandate territory between Palestinian Jews and Arabs escalated into a full-scale Palestinian civil war in 1947 . Taking the side of the Palestinians, especially following the Israeli Declaration of Independence , the neighbouring Arab countries invaded the by-then former Mandate territory in May 1948, commencing the First Arab–Israeli War . Large-scale hostilities mostly ended with ceasefire agreements after

5895-406: The British in 1923 included what is today Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip . Transjordan eventually was carved into a separate British protectorate – the Emirate of Transjordan, which gained an autonomous status in 1928 and achieved complete independence in 1946 with the approval by the United Nations of the end of the British Mandate. A major crisis among the Arab nationalists took place with

6026-410: The Egyptian Army conducted military exercises near the border, and Ashraf Marwan inaccurately warned that Egypt and Syria would launch a surprise attack in the middle of May. The Israeli Army mobilized with their Blue-White Alert, in response to both the warnings and exercises, at considerable cost. These exercises led some Israelis to dismiss the actual war preparations—and Marwan's warning right before

6157-437: The Egyptian Army to participate in these exercises. Two days before the outbreak of the war, on 4 October, the Egyptian command publicly announced the demobilization of part of the reservists called up during 27 September to lull Israeli suspicions. Around 20,000 troops were demobilized, and subsequently some of these men were given leave to perform the Umrah (pilgrimage) to Mecca. According to Egyptian General El-Gamasy, "On

6288-447: The Egyptian assault force of 32,000 infantry began crossing the canal in twelve waves at five separate crossing areas, from 14:05 to 17:30, in what became known as The Crossing . The Egyptians prevented Israeli forces from reinforcing the Bar Lev Line and proceeded to attack the Israeli fortifications. Meanwhile, engineers crossed over to breach the sand wall. The Israeli Air Force conducted air interdiction operations to try to prevent

6419-426: The General Assembly on 3 September 1947. The Report contained a majority and a minority plan. The majority proposed a Plan of Partition with Economic Union . The minority proposed The Independent State of Palestine . With only slight modifications, the Plan of Partition with Economic Union was the one the adoption and implementation of which was recommended in resolution 181(II) of 29 November 1947. The Resolution

6550-427: The Golan Heights. Egyptian forces then consolidated their initial positions. On 7 October, the bridgeheads were enlarged an additional 4 km ( 2 + 1 ⁄ 2  mi), at the same time repulsing Israeli counterattacks. In the north, the Egyptian 18th Division attacked the town of El-Qantarah el-Sharqiyya , engaging Israeli forces in and around the town. The fighting there was conducted at close quarters, and

6681-472: The Israeli–Palestinian conflict) on American soil. In 1969, Egypt initiated the War of Attrition , with the goal of exhausting Israel into surrendering the Sinai Peninsula. The war ended following Gamal Abdel Nasser 's death in 1970. Once Sadat took over, he tried to forge positive relations with the US, hoping that they would put pressure on Israel to return the land, by expelling 15,000 Russian advisors from Egypt. On 6 October 1973, Syria and Egypt staged

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6812-436: The Jordan, leading to growing conflict between Israel and Syria. The PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) was first established in 1964, under a charter including a commitment to "[t]he liberation of Palestine [which] will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence..." (PLO Charter, Article 22, 1968). On 19 May 1967, Egypt expelled UNEF observers, and deployed 100,000 soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula. It again closed

6943-430: The London Conference and before the United Nations mainly, the only fair and just solution to the problem of Palestine is the creation of United State of Palestine based upon the democratic principles ... That day, the armies of Egypt , Lebanon, Syria , Jordan and Iraq invaded what had just ceased to be the British Mandate, marking the beginning of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . The nascent Israeli Defense Force repulsed

7074-406: The Ottoman Empire, which was aligned with Germany against Britain and France in the war. McMahon promised that if the Arabs supported Britain in the war, the British government would support establishing an independent Arab state under Hashemite rule in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine. The Arab revolt, led by T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") and Husayn's son Faysal,

7205-617: The PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, while the PLO recognized the right of the state of Israel to exist and renounced terrorism, violence and its desire for the destruction of Israel . The Oslo II agreement was signed in 1995 and detailed the division of the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C . Area A was land under full Palestinian civilian control, and Palestinians were also responsible for internal security. The Oslo agreements remain important documents in Israeli–Palestinian relations. The Al-Aqsa Intifada forced Israel to rethink its relationship and policies towards

7336-423: The Palestinians. Following a series of suicide bombings and attacks, the Israeli army launched Operation Defensive Shield in March 2002. It was the largest military operation conducted by Israel since the Six-Day War. As violence between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants intensified, Israel expanded its security apparatus around the West Bank by re-taking many parts of land in Area A. Israel established

7467-463: The Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to the UN Secretary-General on 15 May 1948 stated publicly that Arab Governments found "themselves compelled to intervene for the sole purpose of restoring peace and security and establishing law and order in Palestine" (Clause 10(e)). Further in Clause 10(e): The Governments of the Arab States hereby confirm at this stage the view that had been repeatedly declared by them on previous occasions, such as

7598-488: The Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, and the Egypt–Israel peace treaty , the first time an Arab country recognized Israel . Egypt drifted away from the Soviet Union, eventually leaving the Eastern Bloc . The war was part of the Arab–Israeli conflict , an ongoing dispute that has included many battles and wars since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel had captured Egypt's Sinai Peninsula , roughly half of Syria's Golan Heights , and

7729-432: The Sinai Peninsula, he was ready "to recognize the rights of Israel as an independent state as defined by the Security Council of the United Nations ." On 4 February 1971, Sadat gave a speech to the Egyptian National Assembly outlining a proposal under which Israel would withdraw from the Suez Canal and the Sinai Peninsula along with other occupied Arab territories. Swedish diplomat Gunnar Jarring coincidentally proposed

7860-399: The Sinai Peninsula. The U.S. considered Israel an ally in the Cold War and had been supplying the Israeli military since the 1960s. U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger believed that the regional balance of power hinged on maintaining Israel's military dominance over Arab countries and that an Arab victory in the region would strengthen Soviet influence. Britain's position, on

7991-446: The Sinai and Golan Heights. Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal in Operation Badr and advanced into the Sinai, while Syrian forces gained territory in the Golan Heights. After three days, Israel halted the Egyptian advance and pushed the Syrians back. Israel then launched a counteroffensive into Syria, shelling the outskirts of Damascus . Egyptian forces attempted to push further into Sinai but were repulsed, and Israeli forces crossed

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8122-400: The Sinai with Kelt missiles , while another two Egyptian Tupolevs fired two Kelt missiles at a radar station in central Israel. One missile was shot down by a patrolling Israeli Mirage fighter, and the second fell into the sea. The attack was an attempt to warn Israel that Egypt could retaliate if it bombed targets deep within Egyptian territory. Under cover of the initial artillery barrage,

8253-404: The Sinai. Shazly's account was disputed by Kenneth Pollack, who noted that for the most part, the forts only fell to repeated assaults by superior forces or prolonged sieges over many days. The northernmost fortification of the Bar Lev Line, code-named ' Fort Budapest ', withstood repeated assaults and remained in Israeli hands throughout the war. Once the bridges were laid, additional infantry with

8384-451: The Soviet Union. On 9 October, the IDF chose to concentrate its reserves and build up its supplies while the Egyptians remained on the strategic defensive. Nixon and Kissinger held back on a full-scale resupply of arms to Israel. Short of supplies, the Israeli government reluctantly accepted a cease-fire in place on 12 October, but Sadat refused to do so. The Soviets started an airlift of arms to Syria and Egypt. The American global interest

8515-490: The Soviets and Americans were at that time pursuing détente and had no interest in seeing the Middle East destabilized. In a June 1973 meeting with American President Richard Nixon , Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had proposed Israel pull back to its 1967 border. Brezhnev said that if Israel did not, "we will have difficulty keeping the military situation from flaring up"—an indication that the Soviet Union had been unable to restrain Sadat's plans. Between May and August 1973,

8646-495: The Soviets to use their influence to prevent war, contacted Egypt with Israel's message of non-preemption, and sent messages to other Arab governments to enlist their help on the side of moderation. These late efforts were futile. According to Kissinger, had Israel struck first it would not have received "so much as a nail". The Egyptians had prepared for an assault across the canal and deployed five divisions totaling 100,000 soldiers, 1,350 tanks and 2,000 guns and heavy mortars for

8777-434: The Suez Canal, advancing toward Suez City. On 22 October, a UN-brokered ceasefire broke down, with both sides accusing each other of violations. By 24 October, Israel had encircled the Egyptian Third Army and Suez City, coming within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of Cairo. Egypt successfully repelled further Israeli advances in the battles of Ismailia and Suez . A second ceasefire was imposed on 25 October, officially ending

8908-429: The Syrian army. These activities were considered puzzling but not a threat because Israeli intelligence suggested they would not attack without Egypt, and Egypt would not attack until the weaponry they wanted arrived. Despite this belief, Israel sent reinforcements to the Golan Heights. These forces were to prove critical during the early days of the war. On 27 to 30 September, two batches of reservists were called up by

9039-399: The West Bank and East Jerusalem, Meir was angered and shelved the document. The United States was infuriated by the cool Israeli response to Egypt's proposal, and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Joseph Sisco informed Israeli ambassador Yitzhak Rabin that "Israel would be regarded responsible for rejecting the best opportunity to reach peace since the establishment of

9170-515: The West Bank. Palestinian actions ranged from civil disobedience to violence. In addition to general strikes, boycotts on Israeli products, graffiti and barricades, Palestinian demonstrations that included stone-throwing by youths against the Israel Defense Forces brought the Intifada international attention. The Israeli army's heavy handed response to the demonstrations, with live ammunition, beatings and mass arrests, brought international condemnation. The PLO, which until then had never been recognised as

9301-423: The areas that are now Israel as a response to massacres of Arab towns by militant Jewish organizations like the Irgun and the Lehi (group) (See Deir Yassin massacre ). The War came to an end with the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and each of its Arab neighbours. The status of Jewish citizens in Arab states worsened during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. Anti-Jewish riots erupted throughout

9432-479: The attack was launched—as another exercise. In the week leading up to Yom Kippur , the Egyptian Army staged a week-long training exercise adjacent to the Suez Canal. Israeli intelligence, detecting large troop movements towards the canal, dismissed them as mere training exercises. Movements of Syrian troops towards the border were also detected, as were the cancellation of leaves and a call-up of reserves in

9563-591: The attack. Kenneth Pollack wrote that 18 Egyptian aircraft were shot down, and that these losses prompted the cancellation of the second planned wave. In one notable engagement during this period, a pair of Israeli F-4E Phantoms challenged 28 Egyptian MiGs over Sharm el-Sheikh and within half an hour, shot down seven or eight MiGs with no losses. One of the Egyptian pilots killed was Captain Atef Sadat , President Sadat's half-brother. Simultaneously, 14 Egyptian Tupolev Tu-16 bombers attacked Israeli targets in

9694-504: The border, as Israel refused to allow them on its territory. Israel completed work on a national water carrier in 1964, a huge engineering project designed to transfer Israel's allocation of the Jordan river 's waters towards the south of the country in realization of Ben-Gurion's dream of mass Jewish settlement of the Negev desert. The Arabs responded by trying to divert the headwaters of

9825-479: The bridges from being erected, but took losses from Egyptian SAM batteries. The air attacks were ineffective overall, as the sectional design of the bridges enabled quick repairs when hit. Despite fierce resistance, the Israeli reserve brigade garrisoning the Bar-Lev forts was overwhelmed. According to Shazly, within six hours, fifteen strongpoints had been captured as Egyptian forces advanced several kilometres into

9956-408: The canal had been equipped with RPG-7 rockets and RPG-43 grenades and reinforced with an anti-tank guided missile battalion, as they would not have any armor support for nearly 12 hours. In addition, the Egyptians had built separate ramps at the crossing points, reaching as high as 21 metres (69 ft) to counter the Israeli sand wall, provide covering fire for the assaulting infantry and to counter

10087-649: The city of Hebron , in what became known as the Hebron massacre . During the week of the 1929 riots, at least 116 Arabs and 133 Jews were killed and 339 wounded. By 1931, 17 percent of the population of Mandatory Palestine were Jews, an increase of six percent since 1922. Jewish immigration peaked soon after the Nazis came to power in Germany, causing the Jewish population in British Palestine to double. In

10218-507: The civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine". The Declaration was issued as a result of the belief of key members of the government, including Prime Minister David Lloyd George , that Jewish support was essential to winning the war; however, the declaration caused great disquiet in the Arab world. After the war, the area came under British rule as the British Mandate of Palestine . The area mandated to

10349-501: The collapse of the pan-Arabist kingdom led to the establishment of the local Palestinian version of Arab nationalism, with the return of Amin al-Husseini from Damascus to Jerusalem in late 1920. At this point in time Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine continued, while to some opinions a similar, but less documented, immigration also took place in the Arab sector, bringing workers from Syria and other neighbouring areas. Palestinian Arabs saw this rapid influx of Jewish immigrants as

10480-673: The context of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process . The same year, Israel and Jordan reached a peace accord. In 2002, the Arab League offered recognition of Israel by Arab countries as part of the resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the Arab Peace Initiative . The initiative, which has been reconfirmed since, calls for normalizing relations between the Arab League and Israel, in exchange for

10611-426: The course of twenty years, some 850,000 Jews from Arab countries immigrated to Israel and other countries. As a result of Israel's victory in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , any Arabs caught on the wrong side of the ceasefire line were unable to return to their homes in what became Israel. Likewise, any Jews on the West Bank or in Gaza were exiled from their property and homes to Israel. Today's Palestinian refugees are

10742-510: The descendants of those who left, the responsibility for their exodus being a matter of dispute between the Israeli and the Palestinian side. Historian Benny Morris has claimed that the "decisive cause" for the abandonment by Palestinian Arabs of their settlements was predominantly related to, or caused by, actions of the Jewish forces (citing actual physical expulsions, military assaults on settlements, fear of being caught up in fighting,

10873-469: The expulsion of the PLO and thousands of Palestinian fighters to Lebanon. The PLO resettled in Lebanon, where it began to extend a de facto autonomous rule and from which it staged raids into Israel. PLO was one of the major factors for sectarian destabilization of Lebanon and the eruption of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. In 1978, Israel launched Operation Litani , in which it together with

11004-765: The failed establishment of the Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920. With the disastrous outcome of the Franco-Syrian War , the self-proclaimed Hashemite kingdom with its capital in Damascus was defeated and the Hashemite ruler took refuge in Mandatory Iraq. The crisis saw the first confrontation of nationalist Arab and Jewish forces, taking place in the Battle of Tel Hai in March 1920, but more importantly

11135-408: The fall of nearby settlements, and propaganda inciting flight), while abandonment due to orders by the Arab leadership was decisive in only six out of the 392 depopulated Arab settlements analysed by him. Over 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel between 1948 and 1952, with approximately 285,000 of them from Arab countries. In 1956, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, and blockaded

11266-526: The few commandos that did filter through were ineffectual and presented nothing more than a "nuisance". Kenneth Pollack asserted that despite their heavy losses, the Egyptian commandos fought exceptionally hard and created considerable panic, prompting the Israelis to take precautions that hindered their ability to concentrate on stopping the assault across the canal. Egyptian forces advanced approximately 4 to 5 km ( 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 to 3 mi) into

11397-406: The first Israeli armored counterattacks. The Egyptian Army put great effort into finding a quick and effective way of breaching the Israeli defenses . The Israelis had built large 18-metre (59 foot) high sand walls with a 60-degree slope and reinforced with concrete at the water line. Egyptian engineers initially experimented with explosive charges and bulldozers to clear the obstacles, before

11528-537: The initiative of the operations staff, we reviewed the situation on the ground and developed a framework for the planned offensive operation. We studied the technical characteristics of the Suez Canal, the ebb and the flow of the tides, the speed of the currents and their direction, hours of darkness and of moonlight, weather conditions, and related conditions in the Mediterranean and Red sea." He explained further by saying: "Saturday 6 October 1973 (10 Ramadan 1393)

11659-475: The interim peace accords with the Palestinian Authority and the generally existing ceasefire, until the mid-2010s the Arab League and Israel had remained at odds with each other over many issues. Among Arab belligerents in the conflict, Iraq and Syria are the only states who have reached no formal peace accord or treaty with Israel, with both supporting Iran. The Syrian civil war reshuffled

11790-643: The leaders of the Palestinian people by Israel, was invited to peace negotiations the following year, after it recognized Israel and renounced terrorism. In mid-1993, Israeli and Palestinian representatives engaged in peace talks in Oslo, Norway. As a result, in September 1993, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords , known as the Declaration of Principles or Oslo I. In side letters , Israel recognized

11921-578: The likelihood of Jordan joining in." On the night of 25 September, Hussein secretly flew to Tel Aviv to warn Meir of an impending Syrian attack. "Are they going to war without the Egyptians, asked Mrs. Meir. The king said he didn't think so. 'I think they [Egypt] would cooperate. ' " This warning was ignored, and Israeli intelligence indicated that Hussein had not said anything that was not already known. Throughout September, Israel received eleven warnings of war from well-placed sources. However, Mossad Director-General Zvi Zamir continued to insist that war

12052-531: The mid-1930s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam arrived from Syria and established the Black Hand , an anti-Zionist and anti-British militant organization. He recruited and arranged military training for peasants, and by 1935 he had enlisted between 200 and 800 men. The cells were equipped with bombs and firearms, which they used to kill Jewish settlers in the area, as well as engaging in a campaign of vandalism of Jewish settler plantations. By 1936, escalating tensions led to

12183-478: The mobilization and transportation of the military. Despite refusing to participate, King Hussein of Jordan "had met with Sadat and Assad in Alexandria two weeks before. Given the mutual suspicions prevailing among the Arab leaders, it was unlikely that he had been told any specific war plans. But it was probable that Sadat and Assad had raised the prospect of war against Israel in more general terms to feel out

12314-410: The movement of Israeli reserves to the front. These special operations often led to confusion and anxiety among Israeli commanders, who commended the Egyptian commandos. This view was contradicted by another source that stated that few commandos made it to their objectives, and were usually nothing more than a nuisance. According to Abraham Rabinovich , only the commandos near Baluza and those blocking

12445-556: The newly elected government of Ehud Barak authorized a withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, fulfilling an election promise to do so well ahead of a declared deadline. The hasty withdrawal lead to the immediate collapse of the South Lebanon Army , and many members either got arrested or fled to Israel. The 1970s were marked by a large number of major, international terrorist attacks, including the Lod Airport massacre and

12576-655: The onslaught. Facing them were 450 soldiers of the Jerusalem Brigade , spread out in 16 forts along the length of the canal. There were 290 Israeli tanks in all of Sinai, divided into three armored brigades, only one of which was deployed near the canal when hostilities commenced. Large bridgeheads were established on the east bank on 6 October. Israeli armoured forces launched counterattacks from 6 to 8 October, but they were often piecemeal and inadequately supported and were beaten back principally by Egyptians using portable anti-tank missiles. Between 9 and 12 October,

12707-419: The other hand, was that war between the Arabs and Israelis could only be prevented by the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 and a return to the pre-1967 boundaries. Sadat also had important domestic concerns in wanting war. "The three years since Sadat had taken office ... were the most demoralized in Egyptian history. ... A desiccated economy added to the nation's despondency. War

12838-484: The partition plan cannot be carried out at this time by peaceful means. ... unless emergency action is taken, there will be no public authority in Palestine on that date capable of preserving law and order. Violence and bloodshed will descend upon the Holy Land. Large-scale fighting among the people of that country will be the inevitable result. On 14 May 1948, the day on which the British Mandate over Palestine expired,

12969-413: The peace proposal despite knowing that the only plausible alternative was going to war with Egypt. Four months before the war broke out, Kissinger made an offer to Ismail, Sadat's emissary. Kissinger proposed returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egyptian control and an Israeli withdrawal from all of Sinai, except for some strategic points. Ismail said he would return with Sadat's reply, but he never did. Sadat

13100-454: The presentations were done, the prime minister hemmed uncertainly for a few moments but then came to a clear decision. There would be no preemptive strike. Israel might be needing American assistance soon and it was imperative that it would not be blamed for starting the war. 'If we strike first, we won't get help from anybody,' she said. Prior to the war, Kissinger and Nixon consistently warned Meir that she must not be responsible for initiating

13231-598: The price of oil fourfold, and used it as a political weapon to gain support against Israel. The Yom Kippur War accommodated indirect confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union. When Israel had turned the tide of war, the USSR threatened military intervention. The United States, wary of nuclear war , secured a ceasefire on 25 October. Following the Camp David Accords of the late 1970s, Israel and Egypt signed

13362-518: The primacy of Turks within the empire, leading to discrimination against the Arabs. The promise of liberation from the Ottomans led many Jews and Arabs to support the allied powers during World War I, leading to the emergence of widespread Arab nationalism. Both Arab nationalism and Zionism had their formulative beginning in Europe. The Zionist Congress was established in Basel in 1897, while the "Arab Club"

13493-498: The region to this day. At the end of August 1967, Arab leaders met in Khartoum in response to the war, to discuss the Arab position toward Israel. They reached consensus that there should be no recognition, no peace, and no negotiations with the State of Israel, the so-called "three no's", which according to Abd al Azim Ramadan, left only one option – a war with Israel. In 1968, American senator Robert F. Kennedy

13624-646: The region. Following several failed attempts to solve the problem diplomatically, the British asked the newly formed United Nations for help. On 15 May 1947, the General Assembly appointed a committee, the UNSCOP , composed of representatives from eleven states. To make the committee more neutral, none of the Great Powers were represented. After five weeks of in-country study, the Committee reported to

13755-576: The remaining portable and recoilless anti-tank weapons began to cross the canal, while the first Egyptian tanks started to cross at 20:30. The Egyptians also attempted to land several heli-borne commando units in various areas in the Sinai to hamper the arrival of Israeli reserves. This attempt met with disaster as the Israelis shot down up to 20 helicopters, inflicting heavy casualties. Israeli Major General (res.) Chaim Herzog placed Egyptian helicopter losses at 14. Other sources claim that "several" helicopters were downed with "total loss of life" and that

13886-507: The road to Fort Budapest had measurable success. Of the 1,700 Egyptian commandos inserted behind Israeli lines during the war, 740 were killed—many in downed helicopters—and 330 taken prisoner. On 7 October, David Elazar visited Shmuel Gonen, commander of the Israeli Southern Command —who had only taken the position three months before at the retirement of Ariel Sharon—and met with Israeli commanders. The Israelis planned

14017-538: The situation near Israel's northern border, putting the ruling Syrian government, Hezbollah and the Syrian opposition at odds with each other and complicating their relations with Israel upon the emerging warfare with Iran. The conflict, since 2023 a war , between Israel and Hamas -ruled Gaza is also attributed to the Iran–Israel proxy conflict . By 2017, Israel and several Arab Sunni states led by Saudi Arabia formed

14148-472: The state." Israel responded to Jarring's plan on 26 February by outlining its readiness to make some form of withdrawal, while declaring it had no intention of returning to the pre-5 June 1967 lines . Explicating the response, Eban told the Knesset that the pre-5 June 1967 lines "cannot assure Israel against aggression". Jarring was disappointed and blamed Israel for refusing to accept a complete pullout from

14279-568: The territories of the West Bank which had been held by Jordan since 1948 . On 19 June 1967, shortly after the Six-Day War, the Israeli government voted to return the Sinai to Egypt and the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for a permanent peace settlement and a demilitarization of the returned territories. This decision was not made public at the time, nor was it conveyed to any Arab state. Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban has said that it had been conveyed, but there seems to be no solid evidence to corroborate his claim; no formal peace proposal

14410-600: The territory allocated by the UN to the Jewish State, creating a large number of refugees and capturing the towns of Tiberias , Haifa , Safad , Beisan and, in effect, Jaffa . Early in 1948 the United Kingdom announced its firm intention to terminate its mandate in Palestine on 14 May. In response, US President Harry S. Truman made a statement on 25 March proposing UN trusteeship rather than partition, stating that unfortunately, it has become clear that

14541-695: The time. This resentment led to outbreaks of violence later that year, as the al-Husseini incited riots broke out in Jerusalem. Winston Churchill 's 1922 White Paper tried to reassure the Arab population, denying that the creation of a Jewish state was the intention of the Balfour Declaration. In 1929 , after a demonstration by Vladimir Jabotinsky 's political group Betar at the Western Wall , riots started in Jerusalem and expanded throughout Mandatory Palestine; Arabs murdered 67 Jews in

14672-749: The training exercises, and that the Egyptians had amassed all of their crossing equipment along the canal. He then called General Shmuel Gonen , who had replaced him as head of Southern Command, and expressed his certainty that war was imminent. Zamir's concern grew on 4–5 October, as additional signs of an impending attack were detected. Soviet advisers and their families left Egypt and Syria, transport aircraft thought to be laden with military equipment landed in Cairo and Damascus , and aerial photographs revealed that Egyptian and Syrian concentrations of tanks, infantry, and surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) were at an unprecedented high. According to declassified documents from

14803-613: The walled area and had a population of only a few tens of thousands. Collective farms, known as kibbutzim , were established, as was the first entirely Jewish city in modern times, Tel Aviv . During 1915–16, as World War I was underway, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, secretly corresponded with Husayn ibn 'Ali , the patriarch of the Hashemite family and Ottoman governor of Mecca and Medina. McMahon convinced Husayn to lead an Arab revolt against

14934-427: The war began. Elazar proposed a mobilization of the entire air force and four armored divisions, or 100,000 to 120,000 troops, while Dayan favored a mobilization of the air force and two armored divisions, or around 70,000 troops. Meir chose Elazar's proposal. Elazar argued in favor of a pre-emptive attack against Syrian airfields at noon, Syrian missiles at 3:00 pm, and Syrian ground forces at 5:00 pm: When

15065-412: The war. The Yom Kippur War had significant consequences. The Arab world, humiliated by the 1967 defeat, felt psychologically vindicated by its early successes in 1973. Meanwhile, Israel, despite battlefield achievements, recognized that future military dominance was uncertain. These shifts contributed to the Israeli–Palestinian peace process , leading to the 1978 Camp David Accords , when Israel returned

15196-514: The years from the large-scale, regional Arab–Israeli conflict to a more local Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which peaked during the 1982 Lebanon War when Israel intervened in the Lebanese Civil War to oust the Palestinian Liberation Organization from Lebanon . With the decline of the 1987–1993 First Intifada , the interim Oslo Accords led to the creation of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994, within

15327-544: Was assassinated following a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles , California. The assassin, Sirhan Sirhan , was a Palestinian-Jordanian Arab Christian who cited Kennedy's support for Israel during the Six-Day War as his motive for the killing; Sirhan was sentenced to life in prison. Some scholars described Kennedy's murder as the first spillover of the Arab–Israeli conflict (and in particular

15458-536: Was a desperate option." Almost a full year before the war, in a meeting on 24 October 1972, with his Supreme Council of the Armed Forces , Sadat declared his intention to go to war with Israel even without proper Soviet support. In February 1973, Sadat made a final peace overture that would have included Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula that he relayed to Kissinger via his adviser Mohammad Hafez Ismail , which Kissinger made known to Meir. Meir rejected

15589-462: Was adopted by 33 votes to 13 with 10 abstentions. All six Arab states who were UN-members voted against it. On the ground, Arab and Jewish Palestinians were fighting openly to control strategic positions in the region. Several major atrocities were committed by both sides. In the weeks prior to the end of the mandate the Haganah launched a number of offensives in which they gained control over all

15720-510: Was already determined to go to war. Only an American guarantee that the United States would fulfill the entire Arab program in a brief time could have dissuaded Sadat. Sadat declared that Egypt was prepared to "sacrifice a million Egyptian soldiers" to recover its lost territory. From the end of 1972, Egypt began a concentrated effort to build up its forces, receiving MiG-21 jet fighters, SA-2 , SA-3 , SA-6 and SA-7 antiaircraft missiles, T-55 and T-62 tanks, RPG-7 antitank weapons, and

15851-490: Was established in Paris in 1906. In the late 19th century European and Middle Eastern Jewish communities began to increasingly immigrate to Palestine and purchase land from the local Ottoman landlords. The population of the late 19th century in Palestine reached 600,000 – mostly Muslim Arabs, but also significant minorities of Jews, Christians, Druze and some Samaritans and Baháʼís . At that time, Jerusalem did not extend beyond

15982-463: Was inflicted on a Hawk battery at Ophir. The aerial assault was coupled with a barrage from more than 2,000 artillery pieces for a period of 53 minutes against the Bar Lev Line and rear area command posts and concentration bases. Author Andrew McGregor claimed that the success of the first strike negated the need for a second planned strike. Egypt acknowledged the loss of five aircraft during

16113-598: Was launched on 15 October. IDF forces spearheaded by Ariel Sharon's division broke through the Tasa corridor and crossed the Suez Canal to the north of the Great Bitter Lake . After intense fighting, the IDF progressed towards Cairo and advanced southwards on the east bank of the Great Bitter Lake and in the southern extent of the canal right up to Port Suez . Israeli progress towards Cairo was brought to

16244-493: Was made either directly or indirectly by Israel. The Americans, who were briefed of the Cabinet's decision by Eban, were not asked to convey it to Cairo and Damascus as official peace proposals, nor were they given indications that Israel expected a reply. Eban rejected the prospect of a mediated peace, insisting of the need for direct negotiations with the Arab governments. The Arab position, as it emerged in September 1967 at

16375-407: Was not an Arab option, even after Hussein's warning. Zamir would later remark that "We simply didn't feel them capable [of war]." On the day before the war, General Ariel Sharon was shown aerial photographs and other intelligence by Yehoshua Saguy , his divisional intelligence officer. Sharon noticed that the concentration of Egyptian forces along the canal was far beyond anything observed during

16506-557: Was signed at the southern border crossing of Arabah on 26 October 1994 and made Jordan only the second Arab country (after Egypt) to sign a peace accord with Israel. Israel and Iraq have been implacable foes since 1948. Iraq sent its troops to participate in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , and later backed Egypt and Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In June 1981, Israel attacked and destroyed newly built Iraqi nuclear facilities in Operation Opera . During

16637-410: Was sometimes hand-to-hand. The Egyptians were forced to clear the town building by building. By evening, most of the town was in Egyptian hands. El-Qantarah was completely cleared by the next morning. Meanwhile, the Egyptian commandos airdropped on 6 October began encountering Israeli reserves the following morning. Both sides suffered heavy losses, but the commandos were at times successful in delaying

16768-545: Was successful in defeating the Ottomans, and Britain took control over much of this area. In 1917, Palestine was conquered by the British forces (including the Jewish Legion ). The British government issued the Balfour Declaration , which stated that the government viewed favorably "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" but "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice

16899-627: Was the day chosen for the September–October option. Conditions for a crossing were good, it was a fast day in Israel, and the moon on that day, 10 Ramadan, shone from sunset until midnight." The war coincided that year with the Muslim month of Ramadan , when many Muslim soldiers fast . On the other hand, the fact that the attack was launched on Yom Kippur may have helped Israel to more easily marshal reserves from their homes and synagogues because roads and communication lines were largely open, easing

17030-485: Was this warning in particular, combined with the large number of other warnings, that finally goaded the Israeli High Command into action. Just hours before the attack began, orders went out for a partial call-up of the Israeli reserves . Prime Minister Golda Meir, Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan and Chief of General Staff David Elazar met at 8:05 am on the morning of Yom Kippur, six hours before

17161-506: Was to prove that Soviet arms could not dictate the outcome of the fighting, by supplying Israel. With an airlift in full swing, Washington was prepared to wait until Israeli success on the battlefield might persuade the Arabs and the Soviets to bring the fighting to an end. The Israelis decided to counterattack once Egyptian armor attempted to expand the bridgehead beyond the protective SAM umbrella. The riposte, codenamed Operation Gazelle ,

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