The war of Attrition


Only five months after the end of the Six-Day War, the Egyptian navy, on the 21st October 1967, attacked and sunk the “Eilat,” an Israeli navy destroyer. This action took place in international waters. Israel retaliated by attacking the Oil refinery in Suez City, and the Egyptians response was to open fire along the Suez Canal, inviting Israeli return fire.

The result of these actions was that the inhabitants of the cities Suez, Ismailia, and Kantara left their homes and the cities became ghost towns. Thus the War of Attrition began.

For nearly a year, the Egyptian front was quiet, and during this time, the Egyptian army, together with their Russian advisors, dug in along the entire length of the Suez Canal. Then with Nasser’s public negation of the June 67 cease-fire agreement, daily clashes became the norm.

After the Six-Day War, the surrounding Arab States, realizing that they had not achieved their objectives in a full-scale war, began a strategy of sporadic isolated attacks against Israel. Mainly along the Suez Canal and in the Jordan Valley and on a smaller scale on the Golan Heights, the Lebanese border, and Judea and Samaria, all fighting a terrorist war against Israel and Israeli overseas targets.

The Syrian and Lebanese fronts were relatively quiet until February 1969, when large numbers of terrorists began to infiltrate across the borders, leading to forceful airstrikes by Israel deep into Syria. After that, more and more attacks from Syria took place until 7th August of that year, when a cease-fire came into effect after Israel took very heavy action against the Syrian army.

The PLO had, in the meantime, entrenched themselves all along Southern Lebanon, which became known as “Fatahland,” and clashes ensued between the Lebanese army and the PLO. This sparked a very long political crisis between Lebanese Christians and Muslims, and an agreement was eventually reached whereby the Lebanese government gave the PLO free reign to attack Israel.

Attacks across the border with Jordan by the PLO, with the collaboration of the Jordanian army, continued until “Black September” 1970 when the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan rounded up and expelled the PLO terrorists.

The heaviest fighting took place with Egypt with daily attacks from artillery and commando actions as well as attempts to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Strong retaliation from Israel took place with airstrikes and Israeli commandos attacking and taking control of the Egyptian island of Sadwan, which was strongly fortified.

As a result, the Egyptians pressed hard for even more Russian aid, which they received, including Russian pilots flying the Russian fighter jets supplied to Egypt. An incident occurred when a dog fight ensued over the Suez Canal with The Russians engaging with Israeli fighter jets and ended with 5 Russian jets being downed.

After 18 months of incessant fighting and many Egyptian losses, Nasser finally agreed to a cease-fire with Israel in August 1970 under the auspices of the United States, which effectively ended the War of Attrition. The agreement was that there would be an immediate cease-fire and a military halt for 30 miles on each side of the Canal.

Unfortunately, the day after the cease-fire and despite Israeli objections, which were not heeded, the Egyptians began moving their missiles forward. They began a system of major fortifications along the Canal, and Russian missiles covered the Israeli side of the Canal. Thus the seeds for the next war were sown.