Sinai Campaign and Suez Crisis 1956
The 1956 Sinai Campaign, its causes, secret alliances, and the diplomacy that shaped Israel’s withdrawal and the decade before 1967.
Category pages
- Why Israel went to war in 1956Egypt’s blockade of Israeli shipping, fedayeen attacks across its border, and Egypt’s 1955 arms deal drove Israel’s decision to launch Operation Kadesh. Israel’s secret agreement with Britain and France then shaped the operation and its international consequences.
- The Suez Crisis and the Protocol of SèvresNasser nationalized the Suez Canal Company in July 1956. A secret October agreement coordinated Israel’s attack with the British and French intervention, but international pressure forced the two powers to withdraw without reversing nationalization.
- Operation Kadesh: Sinai battles and Sharm el-SheikhThe IDF opened Operation Kadesh with a paratroop landing near Mitla Pass on 29 October 1956, then advanced across Sinai and captured Sharm el-Sheikh. The straits reopened, and Israel withdrew under UN-backed arrangements in 1957.
- The 1957 withdrawal, Eisenhower, and UNEFEisenhower and the UN pressed Israel to withdraw from Sinai and Gaza. UNEF supervised the withdrawal and served as a buffer with Egypt’s consent; it could not enforce peace or guarantee navigation after Egypt withdrew that consent.
- The decade between the Sinai Campaign and the Six-Day WarUNEF and Egyptian restraint kept the Israel-Egypt front comparatively quiet after Israel withdrew in 1957. The arrangement ended in May 1967, when Egypt expelled UNEF, redeployed troops in Sinai and closed the Straits of Tiran.