Wars involving Israel

Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel has fought seven recognized wars, two Palestinian Intifadas, and a series of armed conflicts in the broader Arab-Israeli conflict.

Wars and other conflicts

Israel has been involved in a number of wars and large-scale military operations, including:

• 1948 Arab–Israeli War (November 1947 - July 1949) - Started as 6 months of civil war between Jewish and Arab militias at the end of the British Mandate of Palestine and turned into a regular war after the declaration of independence of Israel and the intervention of several Arab armies. In its conclusion, a set of agreements were signed between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, called the 1949 Armistice Agreements, which established the armistice lines between Israel and its neighbours, also known as the Green Line.

• Retribution operations (1950s - 1960s) - Military operations carried out by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1950s and 1960s. These actions were in response to constant fedayeen terror attacks during which Arab militants infiltrated from Syria, Egypt and Jordan into Israel to carry out guerrilla attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The policy of the retribution operations was exceptional due to Israel's declared aim of getting a high 'blood cost' among the enemy side which was believed to be necessary in order to deter them from committing future attacks.

• Suez Crisis (October 1956) - A military attack on Egypt by Britain, France and Israel, beginning on 29 October 1956, with the intention to occupy the Sinai Peninsula and to take over the Suez Canal. The attack followed Egypt's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal after the withdrawal of an offer by Britain and the United States to fund the building of the Aswan Dam. Although the Israeli invasion of the Sinai was successful, the US and USSR forced it to retreat. Even so, Israel managed to re-open the Straits of Tiran and pacified its southern border.

• Six-Day War (June 1967) - Fought between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The nations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria and others also contributed troops and arms to the Arab forces. Following the war, the territory held by Israel expanded significantly ("The Purple Line") : The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan, Golan Heights from Syria, Sinai and Gaza from Egypt.

• War of Attrition (1967–1970) - A limited war fought between the Israeli military and forces of the Egyptian Republic, the USSR, Jordan, Syria and the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1967 to 1970. It was initiated by the Egyptians as a way of recapturing the Sinai from the Israelis, who had been in control of the territory since the mid-1967 Six-Day War. The hostilities ended with a ceasefire signed between the countries in 1970 with frontiers remaining in the same place as when the war began.

• Yom Kippur War (October 1973) - Fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel as a way of recapturing part of the territories which they lost to the Israelis back in the Six-Day War. The war began with a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Egypt and Syria crossed the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and Golan Heights, respectively. Eventually the Arab forces were defeated by Israel and there were no significant territorial changes.

• 1978 South Lebanon conflict (March 1978) - The first Israeli large-scale invasion of Lebanon which was carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in order to expel PLO forces from the territory.

• 1982 Lebanon War (1982) - Began in 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon to expel the PLO from the territory. The Government of Israel ordered the invasion as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by the Abu Nidal Organization and due to the constant terror attacks on northern Israel made by the Palestinian guerilla organizations which resided in Lebanon. The war resulted in the expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon and created an Israeli Security Zone in southern Lebanon.

• South Lebanon conflict (1982–2000) - Nearly 20 years of warfare between the Israel Defense Force and its Lebanese proxy militias with Lebanese Muslim guerrilla, led by Iranian-backed Hezbollah, within what was defined by Israelis as the "Security Zone" in South Lebanon.

• First Intifada (1987–1993) - First large-scale Palestinian uprising against Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

• Second Intifada (2000–2005) - Second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified violence, which began in late September 2000.

• 2006 Lebanon War (summer 2006) - Began as a military operation in response to the abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers by the Hezbollah. The operation gradually strengthened, to become a wider confrontation. The principal participants were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict started on 12 July 2006 and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006, when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. The war resulted in the pacification of southern Lebanon and in the weakness of the Hezbollah (which suffered serious casualties but managed to survive the Israeli onslaught).

• Gaza War (December 2008 - January 2009) - Three-week armed conflict between Israel and Hamas during the winter of 2008–2009. In an escalation of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israel responded to ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip with military force in an action titled "Operation Cast Lead". Israel opened the attack with a surprise air strike on December 27, 2008. Israel's stated aim was to stop such rocket fire from and the import of arms into Gaza. Israeli forces attacked military and civilian targets, police stations, and government buildings in the opening assault. Israel declared an end to the conflict on January 18 and completed its withdrawal on January 21, 2009.

Considered wars by the Israeli Ministry of Defense (as they were named by Israel):^[1]

Other armed conflicts involving the IDF

Characteristics of the wars

Each one of the wars has different characteristics, and there are wars similar to each other. Even so, there is place to compare them through examining the wars according to different categories:

• A war "of choice" (as opposite to "war of no choice"): There is a controversy about the ability of Israel to avoid a specific war, started or not by Israel's enemies. The "First Lebanon War" is the first war which was considered to be a "war of choice", but after this term was coined, it became also easier to claim that "Operation Kadesh" is also included in this category. In both of the wars, the state of Israel had to deal with a difficult position which was created by its enemies, but there would always be the doubt, according to the data which was known before the war, and even more from the data of the wars' results, if the wars were a necessary step to the solution of these problems.

• The extent of harm to the civilian population: the "Second Intifada" is more prominent than all of its predecessors in the extent of the injury caused to the civilian population. The strategy of the Palestinians in this war was to hurt the civilian population in Israel, and the majority of the Israeli victims in this war were civilian citizens. Also the Palestinian population was hurt, because the terrorists used to operate from within the population and use the Palestinian villages and towns as hideout places, therefore Israel's army attempts to locate them and stop them occasionally caused injury to innocent Palestinian civilians. Also during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in which both parties tried to occupy civilian settlements, there was a considerable injury to the civilian population; several Jewish settlements were destroyed and their residents were expelled. A similar fate happened to four hundred Palestinian settlements which were destroyed. The fedayeen attacks during 1950s and 1960s were carried out against Israeli individuals and civilians inside Israel, while the retribution operations carried out by Israeli military forces also caused extent damages to Arab civilian communities in Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During the course of the War of Attrition the Israeli army operated several times against civilian infrastructures in Egypt.

• Territorial achievements: In the majority of the wars, Israel occupied extensive territories, some of which still remain in its possession until today, and some of which were returned after a short time or continuous time. The War of Attrition and the 2006 Lebanon War were the only wars in which Israel didn't have any territorial objectives (except of conserving the existing situation).

See also

• Violent conflicts in the British Mandate of Palestine
• History of the Israel Defense Forces
• History of the Israeli Air Force
• Military operations conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces
• Israeli casualties of war

References