Six-Day War

I

Introduction

Six-Day War, armed conflict of June 1967 between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. In six days, Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights, which became collectively known as the Occupied Territories.

Israel and its Arab neighbours had been hostile towards each other since 1948, when Israel became a nation in an area that Palestinian Arabs claim as their homeland (see Palestine). After Israel declared its statehood, several Arab states and Palestinian groups immediately attacked Israel, only to be driven back. In 1956 Israel overran Egypt during the Suez Crisis. Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser vowed to avenge Arab losses and press the cause of Palestinian nationalism. To this end, he organized an alliance of Arab states surrounding Israel and mobilized for war. Israel pre-empted the invasion with its own attack on June 5, 1967. In the following days, Israel drove Arab armies from the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights, all of which it then occupied. Israel also reunited Jerusalem, the eastern half of which Jordan had controlled since the 1948 war.

II

The Causes of the War

In the years before the Six-Day War, the Arab countries continually refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Jewish state, and Arab nationalists led by Nasser called for the destruction of Israel. Egypt and Jordan supported Palestinian fedayeen (guerrillas), who attacked troops and civilians in Israeli territory, then retreated to the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip or the Jordanian-controlled West Bank. From the Golan Heights, Syria regularly shelled Israeli farms. For its part, Israel refused to accept Jordan’s control of Jewish holy places in East Jerusalem. Israel also kept tensions high by responding to Arab incursions with reprisals on Arab territory.

In April 1967 after Syria shelled Israeli villages from the Golan Heights, Israel and Syria engaged in aerial clashes. Israel shot down six of Syria’s fighter planes, and warned Syria against future attacks. Syria appealed to Nasser for backing, and in mid-May the Egyptian army moved 100,000 troops and 1,000 tanks into the Sinai Peninsula on Israel’s southern border. The United Nations (UN) had earlier stationed forces in the area as observers, but on May 17 Nasser called for the removal of UN personnel from several locations. Within days, all of the observers were removed. On May 22 Nasser announced the closure of the Strait of Tiran, a vital shipping corridor for Israel with links to the Red Sea and major sources of petroleum. A similar closure of the strait had been a major cause of the Suez Crisis in 1956; Israel had made clear since then that it would regard another closure as an act of war. Israel was alarmed further when Egypt and Jordan signed a treaty placing the two armies under joint command. Despite a flurry of diplomatic effort, war seemed inevitable.

III

The Battles Begin

Because Israel feared fighting on three fronts (Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian), and because it preferred that fighting take place in Arab rather than Israeli territory, Israel decided to strike first. On the morning of June 5 the Israeli air force attacked Egypt, the largest force in the region. The timing of the attack, 8.45 a.m., was designed to catch the maximum number of Egyptian aircraft on the ground and to come when the Egyptian high command was stuck in traffic between their homes and military bases. The Israeli aircraft took evasive measures to elude Egyptian radar and approached from directions that were not anticipated. The surprise was complete. Within hours of the strike, the Israelis, who focused their attacks on military and air bases, had destroyed 309 of the 340 total combat aircraft belonging to the Egyptians. Israeli ground forces then moved into the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip, where they fought Egyptian units. Egyptian casualties were heavy, but Israel suffered only minimal casualties.

War was not far behind on Israel’s eastern front. Israel had conveyed a message to King Hussein of Jordan asking him to stay out of the conflict, but on the first morning of the war Nasser called Hussein and encouraged him to fight. At 11.00 a.m. Jordanian troops attacked the Israeli half of Jerusalem with mortars and gunfire and shelled targets in the Israeli interior. Israel’s air force, having immobilized the Egyptian air force, turned its attention to Jordan. By evening, the Jordanian air force had been largely destroyed, again with minimal Israeli casualties. At midnight, Israeli ground forces attacked Jordanian troops in Jerusalem, and by the morning of June 6, Israeli troops had nearly encircled the city.

On the second day of the war the Israeli air force continued its operations against Arab air bases, raising the total number of destroyed Arab planes to 416, which included more than two thirds of the Syrian air force. With nearly total control of the skies, Israeli fighter planes and bombers were free to support the tank and infantry forces on the ground. Thus Jordanian reinforcements were prevented from reaching Jerusalem, and by 10.00 a.m. on June 6 the Israelis had taken the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, in the Old City, the holiest site in Judaism. It was the first time in nearly 2,000 years that Jews had controlled the wall. Ground battles continued in the Sinai, where Egypt’s armies fell back in the face of Israeli advances. On the third day of the war, June 7, Jordanian forces were pushed from the West Bank across the Jordan River. The UN arranged a ceasefire between Israel and Jordan that went into effect that evening.

The following day, June 8, Israeli forces reached the Suez Canal. As artillery battles continued along the front, the Israeli air force attacked retreating Egyptians, who were backed up on the few roads through desert mountain passes. As the Sinai shifted to Israeli control, Israel turned its forces toward the Golan Heights. There, on June 9, Israel began a difficult assault up steep terrain against entrenched Syrian forces. Israel sent an armoured corps into the front of Syrian lines while infantry forces surrounded the Syrian positions. The balance of power soon shifted in Israel’s favour, and at 6.30 p.m. on June 10, Israel and Syria reached a ceasefire agreement. Israel controlled all of the Golan Heights, including parts of Mount Hermon. Fighting between Israel and Egypt did not formally end for many years, although Israel controlled the Sinai Peninsula. Not until the 1979 Camp David Accords did the two countries finally sign a peace agreement.

IV

Aftermath

The speed and scope of Israel’s victories were devastating to the Arabs. Egypt, Jordan, and Syria lost almost all of their air forces and much of their armed weaponry. About 10,000 Egyptians were killed in Sinai and Gaza alone, compared with 300 Israeli casualties on that front. In all, Egypt lost about 11,000 troops, Jordan lost about 6,000, Syria lost about 1,000, and Israel lost 700. As a result, Arab leaders endured unpopularity at home while Israel’s government surged in popularity.

On November 22 the UN passed Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Territories; in return Arab states would recognize Israel’s independence and guarantee secure borders for Israel. It enshrined the concept of “land for peace”, which has remained the basis for peace negotiations in the Middle East. Events, however, did not follow Resolution 242. The Arabs and Palestinians declared their intention to continue fighting Israel, and Israel refused to return the Occupied Territories under such conditions. Terrorist attacks and reprisals persisted, and Israel and Egypt continued to engage in artillery, sniper, and occasional air attacks for several years.

Israel moved to secure its position in the Occupied Territories by extending its lines of defence to the boundaries of the Arab states. The Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights were all fortified, and parts of these areas were settled with Jewish Israelis. Israel also announced its intent to secure Jerusalem as its undivided and eternal capital, further antagonizing the Arab states. These disagreements eventually led to the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Nonetheless, Resolution 242, which followed the Six-Day War, created the foundation of the peace process that began to yield results in the late 1970s.