Israel Launches Preemptive Strikes Starting Six-Day War

Context

By spring 1967, relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors had deteriorated through a cycle of cross-border raids by Palestinian groups operating from Syria and Jordan and Israeli reprisals. An April air battle in which Israel downed six Syrian MiGs heightened tensions further. Soviet intelligence reports, later shown to be inaccurate, warned of an impending Israeli attack on Syria, prompting Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to demonstrate solidarity with Damascus.

Nasser ordered Egyptian forces into the Sinai Peninsula on May 14 and requested the withdrawal of the United Nations Emergency Force stationed there on May 18. Four days later he closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, effectively blockading the port of Eilat. On May 30, Jordan’s King Hussein signed a mutual-defense pact with Egypt, placing Jordanian troops under Egyptian command; Iraq soon joined the alliance. Israeli leaders interpreted these steps as an imminent threat to the state’s survival.

What Happened

At approximately 7:45 a.m. on June 5, the Israeli Air Force launched Operation Focus, sending nearly 200 aircraft on low-level flights over the Mediterranean before striking Egyptian air bases from the north and west. Within hours the raids destroyed more than 300 Egyptian aircraft, the great majority while still on the ground, and cratered runways at eighteen airfields. A follow-on wave hit Syrian and Jordanian air bases, eliminating most of those countries’ combat aircraft as well.

With Arab air cover eliminated, Israeli ground forces advanced rapidly into the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. On the eastern front, Jordanian artillery opened fire on West Jerusalem shortly after the initial Israeli strikes. Israeli forces responded with a counteroffensive that drove Jordanian units from East Jerusalem and much of the West Bank within two days. Syrian positions on the Golan Heights remained active, shelling northern Israeli settlements until Israeli troops assaulted the heights on June 9–10.

Aftermath

By June 10 a UN-brokered cease-fire took effect across all fronts. Israel had captured the Sinai Peninsula up to the Suez Canal, the Gaza Strip, the entire West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Egyptian casualties exceeded 11,000, Jordanian losses reached about 6,000, and Syria suffered roughly 1,000 dead; Israeli deaths totaled around 700. The Arab states lost vast quantities of tanks, aircraft, and artillery.

Nasser offered his resignation on June 9 but remained in office after mass demonstrations in Cairo. In Israel the swift victory produced widespread euphoria and reinforced confidence in the military’s capabilities.

Legacy

The territorial changes produced by the war created enduring disputes over occupation, borders, and the status of Jerusalem that have shaped Middle East diplomacy ever since. UN Security Council Resolution 242, adopted in November 1967, called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in exchange for secure and recognized boundaries—the foundation of the “land for peace” principle later invoked in the Camp David Accords and two-state negotiations.

The conflict also accelerated a shift in Arab politics, discredited Nasser-style pan-Arabism in some quarters, and solidified Israel’s doctrine of preemptive action when facing perceived existential threats. The incorporation of more than one million Palestinians under Israeli rule marked the beginning of a new phase in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.