Yom Kippur War

Yom Kippur War, fourth of the Arab-Israeli wars, which was initiated by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. It also occurred during Ramadan, the sacred month of fasting in Islam, and it lasted until October 26, 1973. The war, which eventually drew both the United States and the Soviet Union into indirect confrontation in defense of their respective allies, was launched with the diplomatic aim of persuading a chastened—if still undefeated—Israel to negotiate on terms more favourable to the Arab countries.

The Six-Day War (1967), the previous Arab-Israeli war, in which Israel had captured and occupied Arab territories including the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, was followed by years of sporadic fighting. Anwar Sadat, who became Egypt’s president shortly after the War of Attrition (1969–70) ended, made overtures to reach a peaceful settlement if, in accordance with United Nations Resolution 242, Israel would return the territories it had captured. Israel rejected those terms, and the fighting developed into a full-scale war in 1973.

(Read Britannica’s 1980 interview with Anwar Sadat.)

On the afternoon of October 6 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel simultaneously on two fronts. With the element of surprise to their advantage, Egyptian forces successfully crossed the Suez Canal with greater ease than expected, suffering only a fraction of the anticipated casualties, while Syrian forces were able to launch their offensive against Israeli positions and break through to the Golan Heights. The intensity of the Egyptian and Syrian assaults, so unlike the situation in 1967, rapidly began to exhaust Israel’s reserve stocks of munitions. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir turned to the United States for aid, while the Israeli general staff hastily improvised a battle strategy. The reluctance of the United States to help Israel changed rapidly when the Soviet Union commenced its own resupply effort to Egypt and Syria. U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon countered by establishing an emergency supply line to Israel, even though the Arab countries imposed a costly oil embargo and various U.S. allies refused to facilitate the arms shipments.

With reinforcements on the way, the Israel Defense Forces rapidly turned the tide. Israel succeeded in disabling portions of the Egyptian air defenses, which allowed Israeli forces commanded by Gen. Ariel Sharon to cross the Suez Canal and surround the Egyptian Third Army. On the Golan front, Israeli troops, at heavy cost, repulsed the Syrians and advanced to the edge of the Golan plateau on the road to Damascus. On October 22 the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 338, which called for an immediate end to the fighting; despite this, however, hostilities continued for several days thereafter, prompting the UN to reiterate the call for a cease-fire with Resolutions 339 and 340. With international pressure mounting, the war finally ceased on October 26. Israel signed a formal cease-fire agreement with Egypt on November 11 and with Syria on May 31, 1974.

The war did not immediately alter the dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but it did have a significant impact on the trajectory of an eventual peace process between Egypt and Israel, which culminated in the return of the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for lasting peace. The war proved costly for Israel, Egypt, and Syria, having caused significant casualties and having disabled or destroyed large quantities of military equipment. Furthermore, although Israel had staved off any advance by Egypt to recapture the Sinai Peninsula during the war, it never restored its seemingly impenetrable fortifications along the Suez Canal that Egypt had destroyed on October 6. The results of the conflict thus required the two countries to coordinate arrangements for disengagement in the short term and made more immediate the need for a negotiated permanent settlement to their ongoing disputes.

In an effort to maintain the cease-fire between Israel and Egypt, a disengagement agreement signed on January 18, 1974, provided for Israel to withdraw its forces into the Sinai west of the Mitla and Gidi passes and for Egypt to reduce the size of its forces on the east bank of the canal. A United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force established a buffer zone between the two armies. The Israel-Egypt agreement was supplemented by another, signed on September 4, 1975, that included an additional withdrawal of forces and the expansion of the UN buffer zone. On March 26, 1979, Israel and Egypt made history by signing a permanent peace agreement that led to Israel’s full withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and to the normalization of ties between the two countries. (See Camp David Accords.)