Today, the Jewish nation Israel is again facing the same crisis as it was 57 years ago. Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorists, Iran and Houthi rebels are now eager to launch a major attack on Israel, which is fighting a do-or-die battle against Hamas. Hezbollah has even started the war. Israel is badly surrounded on three fronts, but its steps are not faltering. Even today, it is not ready to bow down under any circumstances for its honour and pride. Exactly 57 years ago, Israel was facing the same situation, when 8 countries attacked it simultaneously and it won the war in just 6 days. In that great war, Israel killed 15 thousand soldiers of Arab countries.
The world also knows the Israel-Arab war of 1967 as the Six Day War. At that time too, the war started with an Israeli attack. That war that took place 57 years ago is called the third war between Israel and Arab. Arab countries were irritated after Israel declared itself an independent nation in 1948 and were continuously imposing sanctions on Israel. In fact, Israel borders Lebanon and Syria in the north, West Bank and Jordan in the east, Gaza Strip and Egypt in the south-west and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. This was the reason that Israel was enraged by the repeated incidents of stopping trade and capturing ships of neighboring enemy countries and entered the battlefield for do or die. Arab countries were also under the illusion that our strength against Israel is greater and we will defeat it easily, but the result turned out to be something else.
What happened in the Six Day War?
This war lasted from 5 June 1967 to 11 June 1967. The world also knows it as the Arab-Israeli War or the Third Arab-Israeli War. Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Algeria simultaneously attacked Israel. Although mainly Egypt, Syria and Jordan fought directly against Israel, the other 5 countries sent them arms and their soldiers to help them.
Amid the strained relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours, the seeds of military hostility were sown in the 1949 armistice agreements. When Israel declared itself an independent nation in 1948, Arab countries attacked Israel. This war did not yield any results and a ceasefire was signed with the mediation of the United Nations.
In 1967, when Israel attacked Egypt for closing the sea route to Israeli shipping, the rest of the Arab countries were outraged and attacked Israel together with Egypt. Earlier in May 1967, Egypt’s then President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that the Straits of Tiran would again be closed to Israeli ships. He then deployed the Egyptian army on the Israeli border.
Israel attacked first
On 5 June 1967, when the UN troops started evacuating the region, Israel carried out several air attacks on Egyptian airfields with 400 fighter jets, which made it clear that Israel was ready for war. The result of the sudden air attack on Egypt was that almost all of its military air assets were destroyed and it was a big success for Israel. Along with this, the Israeli army also attacked the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip along with the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Other countries were scared seeing Israel’s attitude.
Enemy countries bowed down
Egypt and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire on June 8, Syria agreed to the ceasefire conditions on June 9. Thus, the Arab countries signed a treaty with Israel on June 11. The result of the Six Day War was that Israel captured a total of 70,000 km of territory. More than 15000 Arab soldiers were killed in this war, while Israel suffered the loss of less than 1000 soldiers. Apart from this, 20 Israeli civilians were killed in Arab army air strikes on Jerusalem.
Egypt’s president had to resign in embarrassment
After the war ended, Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank including East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt. Tragically, about 280,000 to 325,000 Palestinians and 100,000 Syrians fled from the West Bank and Golan Heights respectively. Egypt’s then President Nasser resigned in embarrassment after Israel’s victory. However, he was dramatically reinstated.
