Dec 27, 2009
On 5 June 1967 the developing military crisis in the Middle East exploded when the Israeli air force launched lighting raids against the Egyptian troops which had recently reoccupied the Sinai Peninsula. A United Nations emergency force had served as a buffer force in the Sinai since the clash between Israel and Egypt in the Suez Crisis of 1956 but withdrew at Egypt's request. Cairo also announced it would close Israel's access to the Red Sea through the Gulf of 'Aqaba.
Anticipating an Arab war against the Jewish state, Israeli forces struck. In less than a week they first destroyed the Egyptian forces in the Sinai, then drove the military of Jordan from the west bank of the Jordan River, and finally crushed the forces of Syria and occupied the Golan Heights in southern Syria. In the process the Old City of Jerusalem was seized and annexed by Israel.
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