Six-Day War

At 7am local time, the Egyptian air force is taken by surprise by an aerial attack by the Israeli air force; Operation Focus  has started. The Israeli air force had been training the execution of this plan for a long time.[3] In order to not be detected by the Egyptian radars, the Israeli fighting jets fly low, and keep radio silent. Because their intelligence service had gathered all the crucial information over the years before, all pilots know where to not only find the Egyptian airfields, but also the exact location of each jet, allowing them to know which ones are the most powerful and therefore can become a danger to Israel. The priorities were set clearly: first to destroy the runways so that no Egyptian jets could escape, then the long-range bombers which were a threat to Israeli cities, and lastly all other air force facilities. Within just thirty minutes, Egypt has already lost more than half of its air force.[3]

After the first air attack, the ground war starts in the Sinai desert. The Israeli troops move forward quickly, however Egyptian intelligence initially tells the troops stationed in the Sinai to let them pass, since they believe it is just a diversion of the actual main attack that they believed was still supposed to happen. This makes it easy for the Israeli troops to reach the city of al-Arish way ahead of schedule at 10pm.[3]

Even though Egypt had lost almost all of its air force within one day of the war, Egypt’s minister of Defence Abdel Hakim Amer pushes the storyline to the Egyptian  government in Caïro and population, and its Arab league allies, that the Egyptian army was able to destroy a big part of the Israeli air force, after having overcome the initial effect of surprise. This leads to Jordan acting upon the joined defence treaty they signed with Egypt.[4] At 10am Jordan starts firing at Israel, at both military and civilian facilities. Jordan’s participation leads to Syria and Iraq also participating in the war, attacking Israel from the east. Israel pushes back by attacking Jordan’s air bases and bunkers around Jerusalem, while at the same time continuing their attack on Egypt, now from multiple directions, while quickly gaining more territory.[3]

On the second day of the war, al-Arish, the biggest town of the Sinai peninsula, is captured by the Israeli troops. The town’s location is important, since it is only 45 km from the Gaza border. Israel hopes that by splitting Gaza from the Sinai, they are able to more easily make Gaza fall. Meanwhile the air attacks by Israel also continue, which leads to an order by General Amer for the Egyptian troops to retreat. However, this retreat is very sudden, and therefore chaotic, leading to the roads out of the Sinai being jammed with army vehicles, and troops falling prey to the Israeli jets.[3]

On the East side, Syrian troops are busy firing at Israeli settlements, however their attack plan was quickly changed back to their defensive plan after being continuously attacked by Israeli jets. And also Jordan has to deal with Israel’s air attacks, while the Israeli troops make their way closer and closer to Jerusalem. After the Israeli's capture of Ammunition Hill in East Jerusalem, the road to the Old City of Jerusalem is more safe for Israeli troops to pass through. Jordan, who’s in possession of Jerusalem and the entire West Bank feels the pressure. With the Israeli troops surrounding them, the Jordan army is at risk of being stranded on the West Bank. King Hussein contacts Nasser asking whether to retreat or not. Nasser eventually admits the actual damages to the Egyptian army, and advises Hussein to evacuate the Jordan army from the West Bank. King Hussein sends out the order of retreat at 11:30pm, however two hours later the possibility of an official cease fire ordered by the security council of the UN causes Hussein to urge his troops to maintain their position; in the hope that when the ceasefire goes in at dawn, Jordan might still be in possession of the West Bank and the Old city of Jerusalem.[3]

On the third day of the war, Israeli troops hurry towards conquering the Old City before the proposed ceasefire goes into effect. With less than 100 Jordanian soldiers left to defend the old city, the Israeli troops open the fire and reach the Western Wall. Jordan also loses other places in the West bank like Nablus, Jericho and Bethlehem to Israel.[3]

On the other front, Israel starts Operation Lights, with the navy attacking the Gulf of Suez and an overland attack on Egyptian forces in the Straits of Tiran. The attack at the Straits of Tiran is successful, resulting in the Red Sea now being open again for Israeli ships to pass through.[3]

On the fourth day of the war, Israel goes further into Northern Jordan. By conquering the biblical city of Hebron, the war on the West Bank is over. Israel marks their new border on the river Jordan.[3]

At the Sinai front, Egyptian troops are retreating towards the Mitla and Gidi passes, in the hope to cross the Suez Canal and get to safety on the Egyptian mainland. With the Israeli forces getting closer to the Suez Canal, Amer gives the order that all Egyptian troops must protect the Suez Canal from the West side, and that all passes to, and bridges over the Canal must be destroyed. However, this means that retreating Egyptian troops from the Sinai are now unable to cross the canal and get to safety. With the Israeli forces so close by, president Nasser agrees to a cease fire.[3]

At the Northern front, in the Golan Heights, Syria continues firing at Israeli settlements, while most of their army is safely waiting in their bunkers, for the ground fighting to begin. However, with the possibility of also a cease fire between Syria and Israel, the previously planned operation by Israel to invade the Golan Heights  is temporarily put on hold. Syria’s ally, the Soviet Union, warns Israel that they should respect the pending cease fire and that any continuing violence towards Syria could have serious results.[3]

With the strong possibility of a cease fire at all fronts, the war seems to be coming to an end after only four days. Not only has Israel captured the entire West Bank, but the state has also captured the entire Sinai desert.

On the fifth day, the state of Israel orders the attack on the Golan Heights, with air attacks starting at 9:40am, and shortly after that overland attacks from multiple angles. However, the terrain of the Golan Heights is hard to manage and navigate when not used to, thus slowing down the Israeli army, and leading the troops right into the arms of the Syrian army. Even though by 6pm three Syrian military fords had fallen, it took the loss of many lives and material on the Israeli side. On top of that, the troops had only conquered up to 13 km in Syrian territory. The Syrian troops on the other hand, were aside from their frontline, still in pretty good shape. The Syrian government was determined to reinforce those frontline troops as fast as possible and asked for reinforcement from its Arab allies, especially from its treaty partner Egypt. [5]However, there is no response from the Egyptian government.[3]

At the same time in Egypt, president Abdel Nasser holds a speech on live television taking full responsibility for losing the war. Nasser announces his plan to step down as president and names the new president: Zakaria Mohieddin. Immediately after his speech, a spontaneous mass protest starts in Caïro, asking Nasser to stay. Protests in other big cities around the Middle East also happen. King Hussein of Jordan even writes to Nasser asking him to stay and Mohieddin publicly rejects the offered presidency. This leads to Nasser deciding to stay as president, and accepting the resignation of Amer and all of his other generals that fought in the war.[3]

The fighting in the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria continues during the night. Israel is in a rush to capture the entire Golan Heights area before the cease fire with Syria actually begins. At 8:30am, on the sixth, and final day of the war, the Syrian commanders are losing control over their own troops. Syrian troops start blowing up their own bunkers, together with destroying all confidential documents. The city of Quneitra, only 75 km from Damascus is reached by the Israeli troops. It is then that the Syrian government decides to give the order for all troops to retreat and reposition themselves around the capital.[3]

In the meantime the Soviet Union keeps their word, cutting all diplomatic relations with Israel. And nine other Communist bloc countries do so as well. The Israel state, afraid of possible military intervention by the Soviet Union, asks the United States for help. However no response is given by the White House. The Israeli government gives four more hours to the northern troops before they will accept the ceasefire, in the hope to still capture the entire Golan Heights. At 12:30pm the city of Quneitra is taken, and from there on the entire Golan Heights are conquered, including Mount Hermon, the highest point in Syria. It is only then that a ceasefire with Syria is agreed upon by the Israeli state. The war has come to an end.[3]

The Egyptians had 50 runways and about 960 attack aircraft, and the Israelis had 300 attack craft. Before the war, Israeli pilots and ground soldiers had trained to make possible for one aircraft to go in mission even four times a day; Arab air forces were able to complete one or two missions per day. Thanks to this, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) sent many attacks against Egypt on the first day of the war, destroying the Egyptian Air Force when it was still on the ground, and defeated other Arab air forces on the same day. For this reason, the Arabs wrongly believed that Israel had help from other countries, especially from the United States.

On May 26, 1967, the Central Intelligence Agency affirmed that "The Israelis ... If they attack now they ... would still be able to drive the Egyptians away from the entrance to the Strait of Tiran, but it would certainly cost them heavy losses of men and matériel". Few days before the war, Israel believed it could win a war in 3–4 days. The United States and the British believed that Israel would need 7–10 days to win.

The Israeli Army had 264,000 soldiers, but not all of them were called to fight. Israel used about 40,000 troops and 200 tanks. Israeli Central Command forces had five brigades. The first two were near Jerusalem and were called the Jerusalem Brigade and the Harel Brigade. Mordechai Gur's 55th brigade was called from the Sinai front. The 10th Armored Brigade was in the north of the West Bank.

On the other side, Egypt prepared 100,000 of its 160,000 soldiers in the Sinai, including all of its seven divisions (four infantry, two armoured, and one mechanized), four independent infantry brigades, and four independent armoured brigades. Some of them were veterans of Egypt's participation to the North Yemen Civil War and another part were reservists.

Arabs used mainly Soviet weapons, but Jordan had also American weapons and an air force of British aircraft. Egypt had the largest and the most modern of all the Arab air forces, with 420 combat aircraft, all of them given by the Soviet Union. Egypt also had MiG-21s and 30 Tu-16 "Badger" medium bombers, very powerful and dangerous for the enemy.