The Six-Day War - June 1967 - Israel vs. (Egypt), Jordan, Iraq, and Syria UNCENSORED

The Six-Day War—known as the June 1967 War in Arab historiography—was a military conflict between Israel and an Arab coalition formed by the United Arab Republic (the official name of Egypt at the time), Jordan, Iraq, and Syria, between June 5 and 10, 1967. Following the Egyptian demand that the UN withdraw its peacekeeping forces in the Sinai (UNEF) almost immediately, the deployment of Egyptian forces on the Israeli border, and the blockade of the Straits of Tiran, Israel, fearing an imminent attack, launched a preemptive strike against the Egyptian air force. Jordan responded by attacking the Israeli cities of Jerusalem and Netanya. By the end of the war, Israel had captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem (including the Old City), and the Golan Heights. Following numerous border clashes between Israel and its Arab neighbors, particularly Syria, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser expelled the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) from the Sinai Peninsula in May 1967. The peacekeeping force had been stationed in the region since the end of the Suez Crisis in 1957. Egypt amassed 1,000 tanks and some 100,000 troops on the border with Israel9 and closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli-flagged vessels or vessels carrying strategic materials to Israel, receiving strong support from other Arab nations. Israel responded with a similar mobilization that included the recruitment of 70,000 reservists to augment the regular strength of the Defense Forces. The Six-Day War is one of the series of wars fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors following the creation of the State of Israel (1948) in part of the British Mandate of Palestine. These six days in 1967 captured the world's attention and proved pivotal in the region's geopolitics. Their consequences have been profound and far-reaching, and have been felt to this day, having a decisive influence on numerous subsequent events, such as the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War, the Munich massacre, the controversy over Jewish settlements and the status of Jerusalem, the Camp David and Oslo accords, and the Intifada.