Six-Day War
In six days (5-10 June 1967), Israel destroyed the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian air forces — mostly on the ground in pre-emptive strikes — and seized the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The war began after a mounting crisis: Egypt had closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping (an act of war under international law), mobilised 100,000 troops in Sinai, and demanded the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers. Israel concluded that it could not absorb a first strike and launched its own on the morning of 5 June. The war lasted 132 hours of actual fighting. By 10 June, Israel had tripled its territory: the Sinai (61,000 sq km, returned to Egypt 1979-1982), the Golan Heights (Syrian, still occupied), the West Bank and East Jerusalem (Jordanian, with a Palestinian population of nearly a million). The UN Security Council's Resolution 242, adopted unanimously in November 1967, called for Israeli withdrawal from 'territories occupied in the recent conflict' (the English text's deliberately ambiguous 'territories' rather than 'the territories') and Arab recognition of Israel — the 'land for peace' formula that defined every subsequent negotiation.
- Year: 1967 CE
- Category: Military
