The Six-Day War took place from 5 June to 10 June 1967 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt. Israel won the war, which has had huge effects on the future of the Middle East. Israel has occupied Arab areas, such as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ever since. That has helped cause many wars between it and the neighboring countries and has led to the exile of many Palestinians.
Background
After the World War I, Zionist ideals started to become a reality. Jews from Europe started moving to Palestine in the 1920s, when the territory was still under the British mandate. The migration led to conflict with the native Arabs. The foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 was not recognized by the Arab states, and its creation made Egypt go to war in 1948 and 1949 and become Israel's main enemy.
The Suez Crisis in 1956 established a geopolitical situation that failed to solve the problems in the area. The crisis made the United Nations send troops to the Sinai Peninsula to maintain the peace between Egypt and Israel. The coming to power of the Ba'th Party in Syria in 1963; the establishment of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1964; and the alliance of Syria, Egypt, and Jordan in 1966 contributed to the rise of tensions, which eventually led led to the war.
In May 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was informed by the Soviet Union that Israel was moving its troops on its border with Syria. Because of that false information, Nasser decided to expel the UN troops from the Sinai Peninsula and to move his army close to the Egyptian border with Israel. In the last days of May, other Arab countries such as Jordan and Iraq gathered troops and prepared for battle. The main event that led to the beginning of the war was the closing of the Tiran Straits on 23 May 1967, when Egypt blocked Israel's only access to the Red Sea.
The War Timeline
Day 1: 5 June 1967
At 7 a.m. local time, the Egyptian Air Force was taken by surprise by an aerial attack by the Israeli Air Force, and Operation Focus started. Israeli had been training the execution of its plan for a long time. To avoid being detected by the Egyptian radars, Israeli fighting jets flew low and kept radio silent. Because Israel's intelligence service had gathered all the crucial information over the years, all Israeli pilots knew where to find the Egyptian airfields and the exact location of each jet. That let them know which ones were the most powerful and so could become a danger to Israel. Israeli priorities were set clearly: destroy the runways so that no Egyptian jets could escape, the long-range bombers that were a threat to Israeli cities, and finally all other air force facilities. Within just thirty minutes, Egypt has already lost more than half of its air force.
After the first air attack, the ground war started in the Sinai Desert. Israeli troops moved forward quickly, but Egyptian intelligence initially told the troops stationed in the Sinai to let them pass since they believed it to be just a diversion of the actual main attack that was believed had not yet happend. That made it easy for the Israeli troops to reach the city of al-Arish well ahead of schedule, at 10 p.m.
Even though Egypt had lost almost all of its air force within one day of the war, but Defence Minister Abdel Hakim Amer pushed the storyline to the Egyptian government in Cairo, the country's population, and its Arab League allies that the Egyptian Army, after it had overcome the initial effect of surprise. destroyed much of the Israeli Air Force. That led to Jordan acting upon the joined defence treaty that it had signed with Egypt. At 10 a.m. Jordan started firing at Israeli facilities, both military and civilian. Jordan’s participation led to Syria and Iraq also participating in the war by attacking Israel from the east. Israel pushed back by attacking Jordan’s air bases and bunkers around Jerusalem; continuing its attack on Egypt, now from multiple directions; and quickly gaining more territory.
Day 2: 6 June 1967
On the second day of the war, the Israeli troops captured al-Arish, the largest city of the Sinai Ppeninsula. The location is important since it is only 45 km from the Gaza border. Israel hoped that by splitting Gaza from the Sinai, it would make make Gaza fall more easily. Meanwhile, the air attacks by Israel continued, which led to an order by General Amer for the Egyptian troops to retreat. However, the retreat is very sudden, and the chaos led to the roads out of the Sinai being jammed with army vehicles and to troops falling prey to the Israeli jets.