The map
above shows how small Israel was before the war. The parts colored in green
are Israel.
The First Strike
Israel
was going into a battle against the Egyptians, the Jordinians, and the
Syrians. Because of this, Israel decided to fight in Arab territory rather
than have the battles in Israeli territory. On June 5th the Israeli Air
Force made the First Strike on Egypt. That strike caught 309 of the 340
combat aircrafts belonging to Egypt. Then, Israel moved in their ground
forces to complete the attack, leaving heavy Egyptian casualties, but very
minimal causualties for Israel. Israel's first strike in the war was
amazingly successful.
Jordan Attacks!
Israel
had asked Jordan not to join in on the war, but President Nasser of Egypt
called Jordan and told them that they had won the previous battle between
themselves and Israel, although they really had not. Because of this,
Jordanian troops attacked the Israeli half of Jerusalem. Israel didn't have
to worry about Egypt anymore, so they turned their attention on Jordan. By
the next morning, Israeli troops seized the other half of Jerusalem that
they did not yet own. Just one day had past, and already the Egyptian air
force had been eradicated, as well as the Jordanian forces suffering heavy
casualties. Israel continued it's operations against arab air force bases,
raising the amount of fighters destroyed to 416! With almost total control
of the skies, Israel's fighters and bombers were able to protect the tanks
and artillery on the battlefield below. They prevented Jordanaian
reinforcements from reaching Jerusalem, and at 10:00 AM, Israel had taken
control of the Western Wall! By the next day, Jordanian forces were pushed
back to their side of the Jordan River. That day, the Jordanians arranged
for a cease-fire. The first group had surrendered.
Syria Falls
On June
8, Israeli forces had reached the Suez Canal. After they had taken over the
Siniai, Israel turned its forces on the Golan Heights, which is where the
Syrians were shelling Israeli villages from. The next day Israeli soldiers
began the difficult assault up steep terrain against the Syrian forces. The
balance of power soon shifted in Israel's favor, and by 6:30 PM, Syria had
surrendered and signed a cease-fire. Israel then controlled all of the Golan
Heights. The war with the Egyptians didn't formally end until 1979, when the
two countries finally made peace.
This is a
map showing the Golan Heights, and how Syrian forces were able to use it to
their advantage. The Heights were adjacent and above Israeli ground, so
Syrian shells could bombard Israeli villages.
Aftermath of the war
Israel's
victory was extremely devastating to the arabs, who expected victory for
themselves. The fact that the war took only 6 days shows that Hashem is with
Israel. The arab forces lost almost their entire air forces, and much of
their armed weaponry. 10,000 Egyptians were killed in Siniai and Gaza alone,
compared to the 300 Israeli casualties on that front. In all, Egypt lost
about 11,000 troops, Jordan lost about 6,000, Syria lost about 1,000, and
Israel lost about 700. Israel gained all of Jerusalem, The Golan Heights,
Siniai, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.
This map
shows all the lands that Israel gained after the war. Everything colored in
yellow is what Israel gained.
