Israeli-Arab Wars

Definition: Series of armed conflicts between the state of Israel and Arab military forces.

Introduction

The 1948 formation of the state of Israel exacerbated deep-rooted tensions in the Middle East, triggering not only fighting within Israel and Palestine but also a broader Arab-Israeli conflict. On several occasions over the following years this resulted in outright warfare between Israeli and Arab forces. Although a series of peace agreements in the 1970s ended the initial period of large-scale international military engagement, conflict continued, including Israeli involvement in wars in Lebanon in 1982 and 2006. Violence also continued to regularly break out between Israel and Palestinians, but this article primarily covers wars between Israel and Arab forces based in other countries.

Background

The Balfour Declaration, issued by the British government in November, 1917, called for the establishment of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The policy was supported enthusiastically by most Western governments and grudgingly by Arab leaders. In 1922, the League of Nations granted a mandate to Great Britain for the purpose of implementing the declaration. In the years following the mandate, riots over increased Jewish immigration to Palestine were incited by some Arab leaders, most notably by the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini. This violence resulted in the British concluding that Arabs and Jews could not live together peacefully in the same land.

Following World War II and the Holocaust, which claimed more than six million Jewish lives, Jewish survivors increasingly attempted to enter Palestine. Immigration was opposed—often violently—by both the British and Arabs. The Irgun Hahaganah, or Haganah (defense organization), was established by Jewish settlers for protection against the riots and terrorist acts that followed and to mediate the illegal entry of immigrants. Two other more radical Jewish militant groups also developed: the Irgun Zvai Le’umi (National Military Organization), known as the Irgun, and the Lohamei Herut Yisrael, or Lehi, frequently referred to as the Stern Gang after its founder. Although the Lehi were eventually absorbed into the Haganah, both radical groups remained difficult to control and were responsible for numerous terrorist incidents against both the British and Palestinian Arab civilians.

As Great Britain sought to end its mandate, violence between Jews and Arabs steadily escalated. The United Nations (UN) Resolution of November 1947 recommended the establishment of separate Jewish and Arab states within Palestine, with Jerusalem set apart as an international city. Jewish leaders agreed to the plan, but most Arabs rejected the proposed partition as a violation of UN Charter principles. In May 1948 the mandate officially ended and Jewish leaders immediately declared the creation of the state of Israel.

First Israeli-Arab War

The mounting violence in late 1947 and the early months of 1948 even before the formal declaration of Israeli dependence is often considered still part of First Arab-Israeli War (also known as the 1948 Palestine War or the Israeli War of Independence). This early stage was essentially a civil war along ethnic lines, as Jewish and Arab militias attempted to establish territorial control in advance of British withdrawal from Palestine. Along with armed conflict between the militias themselves, there were also widespread attacks against and persecution of civilians by both sides.

Palestinian Arab militants, bolstered by a relatively small number of fighters from surrounding Arab countries, continued efforts to drive Jewish settlers out of the region. Paramilitary groups included the Palestinian-led Army of the Holy War and the Arab League–backed Arab Liberation Army (ALA). However, coordination and support among various Arab guerilla resistance groups and neighboring Arab countries was inconsistent.

In contrast, Jewish forces were well organized and focused on a shared goal of statehood. The Haganah sought to protect Jewish settlements, but faced the challenge of how to defend many isolated villages in a region with an overall Arab majority. Yigael Yadin, operations officer of the Haganah, developed what became known as Plan Dalet or Plan D. The goal of the plan was to attempt to connect such villages with a continuous line occupied by Jewish forces. Any Arab villages in between were to be captured and occupied. In this manner, major towns such as Tiberias, Haifa, and Jaffa were occupied by the Haganah. The most important turning point during the pre-independence fighting was carried out through Operation Nachson. During the first two weeks of April, 1948, a Haganah force of 1,500 opened the road from the coast to Jerusalem. The operation represented the first time a significant Jewish force faced a large army from various Arab countries.

The Haganah's tactical success and occupations caused many Palestinian Arabs to flee their homes. Further contributing to the civilian exodus was widespread fear and panic stirred by paramilitary terrorist attacks. Most notorious of the atrocities was the murder of over one hundred Arab civilians, including children, in the village of Deir Yassin by forces of the Irgun and Stern Gang. Nearly eighty Jews in a medical convoy were then killed in an Arab reprisal attack. Almost 300,000 Palestinians were displaced during this period, the beginning of the broader displacement that would come to be known as the Nakba ("catastrophe" in Arabic).

The establishment of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948, began a new phase in the war. The declaration was immediately followed by an invasion of regular military forces from five nearby Arab countries with the aim of crushing the fledgling state. Troops from Lebanon attacked from the north and from Egypt in the south; troops from Syria, Iraq, and Transjordan attacked from the east. The city of Tel Aviv, the center of the new Jewish state, was bombed by Egyptian aircraft.

On May 31, 1948, under the orders of prime minister and minister of defense David Ben-Gurion. the Haganah and its military allies were recognized as the official army of Israel: Zeva Haganah le-Israel (Israel Defense Forces, or IDF). The Israeli army initially consisted of approximately 40,000 men and women. The numbers of Israeli soldiers rose as new immigrants were able to arrive, and as the Haganah merged with the more radical Irgun, but the troops were dispersed throughout the land as they attempted to repel the invasions.

Fighting in the south was the most critical, as Egypt had the largest of the armies. The settlement at Yad Mordechai, south of Tel Aviv, held out for five days, long enough for the Israelis to send reinforcements and protect the areas along the coast. Meanwhile, in the eastern region later known as the West Bank, the towns of Jenin and Latrun, along the road to Jerusalem, repeatedly changed hands. Although repeated attacks by Israeli forces were unable to wrest the villages from the Arabs, the pressure placed on the Arab forces was critical to their later truce.

On May 21, 1948, Count Folke Bernadotte af Wisborg of Sweden was appointed by the United Nations as mediator to end the fighting. He was able to broker a twenty-eight-day truce between the two sides, which took effect on June 11. Meanwhile, the Israelis had taken control of much of Galilee in the north, as well as the Jezreel Valley from Haifa to the Jordan River. They were also able to maintain a corridor into Jerusalem.

During the truce, the Israelis reorganized and equipped their troops so that when fighting resumed in July, they were in a much stronger position. A second brief truce took effect on July 18. In an offensive called Operation Yoav, beginning in October, the IDF held their gains in the east and north and pushed the Egyptian armies south through the Negev desert. Operation Horev, in December, resulted in the IDF surrounding the Egyptian army in the south. On January 7, 1949, an additional cease-fire was imposed. Between February and July, armistice agreements were signed between all the armies in the region.

The result of the war was that Israel not only affirmed its existence but also expanded its territory. The remaining parts of Palestine were left under the control of neighboring Arab governments, leaving Palestinians stateless. Approximately 700,000 to 900,000 Palestinian refugees also remained displaced, leading to the formation of numerous refugee camps throughout the region and the establishment of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in late 1949. The fate of refugees from the 1948 conflict and their descendents, including the "right of return" concept, would continue to be a main point of dispute between Israel and Arab powers.

Suez Crisis and the Six-Day War

After the First Arab-Israeli War, Egypt, unable to defeat Israel on the battlefield, aided in the establishment of the Fedayeen within the Gaza Strip. This organization hoped to disrupt the new state of Israel through guerrilla warfare. The period was marked by increasing numbers of terrorist attacks on Israel, followed by reprisal raids on the Arab countries.

In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser became head of Egypt with the intent to unite the Arab world. In July, 1956, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, effectively cutting off an important shipping route from Europe to the Middle East and Asia. The result was a military operation planned by Britain and France to recapture the canal. Israel looked on the so-called Suez Crisis as an opportunity to open the canal and to end the campaign of terrorism supported by Egypt.

On October 29, 1956, Israel began the Sinai Campaign. Paratroopers captured the Mitla Pass, critical for control of the eastern portion of the canal, while Israeli infantry and tanks moved across the desert. By November 5, the IDF had captured the entire Sinai Peninsula, destroying the Egyptian army. Britain and France attacked the canal on November 5. Within two days, a cease-fire was arranged. Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai and the Gaza Strip in exchange for the stationing of UN troops in the region. Although Egypt had been defeated in military terms, it benefited politically from the crisis and Nasser's standing as a key leader of the Arab world increased.

The decade that followed the Sinai Campaign of 1956 was marked by continual increases in tension between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964, which served as an umbrella organization for a variety of Palestinian groups, signaled an increase in terrorist activity within the borders of Israel; al-Fatah (victory) represented only one of several highly militant groups within the PLO.

Early 1967 was marked by numerous artillery bombardments from the Syrian positions placed on the Golan Heights, a series of hills that overlooked settlements in northern Israel. At the same time, Egypt increased the pressure on southern Israel. In May, Egyptian troops reentered the Sinai, and Nasser demanded that the UN withdraw its buffer forces from the region; the UN complied. During the last two weeks in May, Egypt closed the port at the Straits of Tiran, on the southern tip of the Sinai, at the same time signing a defense pact with Jordan and Iraq. More than 200,000 Arab troops were deployed against Israel on several fronts.

During the early hours of June 5, 1967, Israel launched a preemptive attack on Egyptian airfields, destroying the Egyptian air force in hours. By noon, the air forces of Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, which all attacked Israel, were also destroyed. Ground troops under the command of Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin moved into the Sinai, occupying the entire region in two days. By June 7, the Israeli army had also surrounded and captured the Old City portion of Jerusalem, allowing free access of Jews to the holy Western Wall of the Temple for the first time in decades.

Initially, Israel was hesitant about attacking the Golan Heights. The position was heavily fortified, and Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan did not wish to fight the war on another front. However, after the complete destruction of the Egyptian army by June 9, Dayan ordered Israeli troops to attack the heights. After heavy fighting over the next twenty-four hours, the Israelis occupied the Golan region. By the evening of June 10, forces on both sides accepted a cease-fire, ending what became known as the Six-Day War (also called the Third Arab-Israeli War).

As a result of the war, Israel occupied the entire Sinai Peninsula as far as the Suez Canal. It also occupied the West Bank, the region between Jerusalem and the Jordan River, which had been controlled by Jordan since the 1948 war. Both the Gaza Strip along the Mediterranean coast and the Golan Heights in northern Israel were also occupied. The occupation of what had been clearly Arab lands and the displacement of another wave of Palestinian refugees would result in a different perception of Israel’s situation by the world at large, and disputes over the Israeli-occupied territories would remain central to further conflict.

Yom Kippur War

Violence continued sporadically after the Six-Day War. In March, 1969, Egypt began what was called the “war of attrition.” In attempts to force Israel back from the Suez Canal, Egyptian artillery began shelling Israeli positions, and the IDF conducted retaliatory raids over Egypt. By 1970, the Soviet Union, which had allied itself with Egypt, began supplying missiles, aircraft, and advisers.

On the east, the PLO increased the numbers of raids into Israel. In retaliation, Israel destroyed Jordanian settlements that housed militants. Fearful that the PLO might attempt a political takeover, Jordan's King Hussein I launched attacks on the group in September 1970, killing more than 2,000 and expelling the rest. The PLO then moved into southern Lebanon. An associated terrorist organization that dubbed itself “Black September” carried out increasingly bold acts in the following years. These acts ranged from shelling Israeli positions in the north to the killing of thirteen children on a hijacked bus and the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Meanwhile, in September 1970 President Nasser of Egypt died and was succeeded by Anwar el-Sadat. During the next several years, Sadat was able to reestablish and rearm the Egyptian army. By 1973, it was again well-equipped for war. Unknown to Israeli intelligence, Syria agreed to a pact with Egypt for an attack on Israel.

The evening of October 5, 1973, was the beginning of the Yom Kippur holiday in Israel. Most Jews, including members of the IDF, were spending the day fasting and praying. On the morning of October 6, the armies of Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israeli forces in the Sinai and on the Golan Heights. Suffering heavy casualties, the Israeli army was forced to retreat.

The IDF was able to stabilize its positions by October 8. Reserves were called, and within forty hours after the start of the war, the Israelis began a counterattack. By October 10, the Syrians had been repelled from the Golan Heights and Israeli forces were advancing into Syria itself.

The heaviest fighting in what became known as the Yom Kippur War or the Israeli-Arab October War occurred in the Sinai. The Egyptian army overran Israeli positions on the east bank of the Suez Canal. The Israelis suffered heavy casualties in failed attempts to retake the east bank. Early in the morning of October 16, the Israeli forces flanked the Egyptian army and crossed the canal. Within hours, they isolated the Egyptian forces on the east side. Surrounded, the Egyptians agreed to a cease-fire.

The heavy cost in lives during the 1973 war led to increased calls to end the ongoing conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In addition, the initial Arab success had produced a face-saving means to accommodate Israel’s need for recognition as an existing state. In November 1977, President Sadat declared his willingness to come to Israel and meet with Prime Minister Menachem Begin in an attempt to establish peace between the two countries. Sadat’s visit provided the catalyst for the first formal treaty between Israel and an Arab neighbor. US president Jimmy Carter provided an isolated retreat for negotiations at Camp David, outside Washington, DC, and in March, 1979, a formal peace treaty was signed. In exchange for recognition of Israel by Egypt, Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai territory. Although Sadat was isolated by his former Arab allies as a result and assassinated in 1981, peace continued between the two countries.

First Lebanon War and the First Intifada

Although the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt marked the end of the large-scale military conflict between Israel and neighboring Arab governments, tensions remained and violence continued. The establishment of the PLO in the southern region of Lebanon, which was wracked by a complex civil war, provided a continuing source of terrorist activity. The 1978 seizure by Israeli troops of a portion of south Lebanon in Operation Litani temporarily reduced such attacks, but by mid-1982, the PLO had become increasingly bold in its activity.

The attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador in London in June 1982 provided a pretext for an Israeli attempt to remove PLO bases. On June 6, the Israelis moved into Lebanon in an attempt to destroy the PLO infrastructure and help establish a pro-Israeli government in the country. By June 11, Israeli forces had reached the outskirts of Beirut, the capital.

Israel was successful in destroying the large PLO bases in the country. Thousands of PLO members, including Yasir Arafat, head of the organization, left Lebanon and dispersed throughout the region. However, the occupation of southern Lebanon became increasingly costly. Pressured by the United Nations to pull back from Beirut, Israeli troops remained in the southern portion of the country. However, terrorist activities and fighting among the Lebanese political factions resulted in increasing numbers of Israeli casualties. From 1983 to 1985, the IDF withdrew most of its forces from Lebanon.

After the 1982 Lebanon War and Israel's subsequent withdrawal from Lebanon, the broad Arab-Israeli conflict became even more focused specifically on fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinians based mainly in the occupied territories. In December 1987, following the accidental killing of four Arab workers by an Israeli truck, Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip began a widespread resistance campaign against the Israeli occupiers. The uprising, known as the First Intifada, spontaneously spread throughout many of the camps or towns occupied by Palestinian villagers and refugees.

The Israeli troops were unsure how to respond to violence that often was carried out by women and children. Hundreds of Arabs were killed by soldiers firing rubber bullets or responding with clubs; additional hundreds were killed by fellow Arabs as collaborators. The First Intifada lasted approximately five years and clearly demonstrated the difficulty inherent in Israel’s occupation of Arab land.

The Madrid Conference in October, 1991, represented an attempt by Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir to negotiate an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1992, Shamir was succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin continued the talks in Oslo through the following year. On September 13, 1993, Rabin and Arafat signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington, DC, agreeing to Israeli withdrawal from some of the occupied territories and effective recognition of the PLO in exchange for PLO recognition of Israel. The Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty signed in 1994 represented further progress in ramping down decades of hostility.

Second Lebanon War and Beyond

The progress toward wider peace in the Middle East came to a halt in 2006 with the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War. Arab militants had continued to use southern Lebanon as a main base for attacks on Israel and tensions between the two countries were high. In July 2006 the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launched a cross-border attack, seeking to gain the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. Several Israeli soldiers were killed and two were captured. In response, Israel invaded Lebanon again and instituted a naval blockade.

A ceasefire agreement was negotiated by the UN in August 2006. The Israeli and Lebanese governments agreed that the IDF would withdraw and the Lebanese army and UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) would work as peacekeepers. The war officially ended with the lifting of Israel's blockade that September and the withdrawal of most IDF troops by October.

The Arab-Israeli conflict continued to evolve further into the twenty-first century. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained a flashpoint for violence, but neighboring Arab governments largely avoided direct entanglement. Indeed, Iran was increasingly considered Israel's major international adversary rather than the Arab nations. Iran continued to support Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas, while also becoming increasingly involved in Syria. The Syrian Civil War that broke out by 2012 included elements that many observers considered to be Iran-Israel proxy conflict.

These complex tensions contributed to regular outbreaks of fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinians, especially in the occupied territories. Notably, in 2023 Hamas launched a major surprise attack against Israel, including massacres of civilians and taking of hostages. In response, Israel mounted a full invasion of the Gaza Strip with the goal of destroying Hamas completely.

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