On June 9, 1967, Israeli forces captured the Golan Heights from the Syrian Army during the Six-Day War.
The Six-Day War pitted the state of Israel against the Arab countries of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Mounting tensions and occasional fighting had taken place in the period leading up to the war. On May 18, 1967, the Egyptian government expelled the UN peacekeepers from the Sinai, and then sent army units to the Egypt-Israel border, thereby militarizing the Sinai Peninsula. A few days later, Egypt prevented Israel commercial vessels from entering the Straits of Tiran. Israel had earlier warned that it would consider blocking its ships from the Tiran straits as a provocation for war. On May 28, 1967, Israel prepared for war with a call up of reservists. Three days later, foreign embassies in Israel instructed their citizens to leave in anticipation for war. On June 1, Israel finalized its war plans. Then in a meeting held on June 4, Israel’s civilian and military leaders set the date for war for the following day, June 5.
The Six-Day War was fought in three sectors: the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.
Battle for the Golan Heights On June 5, Syria opened the northern sector of the war with its artillery batteries in the Golan Heights shelling Israeli settlements in the plains below. Syrian planes also attacked areas of Upper Galilee. On the night of June 5, Israeli planes attacked Syrian airbases and destroyed nearly half of all Syrian planes on the ground. The Syrian Air Force then moved its remaining planes farther away from the battle zones and ceased to be a factor for the rest of the war. As in the other theaters of the war, Israel gained air domination on the Syrian front, which again proved decisive.
During the early stages of the war, Israel’s forces were concentrated in the Egyptian and Jordanian sectors; therefore, Israel’s strategy in the north was merely to hold on and defend territory with undermanned forces. Syrian offensives, however, generally were limited in strength and effectiveness. On June 6, a Syrian infantry and armored attack on Tel Dan, Dan, and She’ar Yashov was turned back by Israel air strikes and fierce local resistance. A large Syrian offensive into Galilee was aborted because of logistical and communications problems.
On June 9, as the victory over Egypt and Jordan became apparent, Israel’s military leaders approved the offensive against Syrian forces on the Golan Heights. Earlier, Syria and Israel had accepted a United Nations Security Council resolution for a ceasefire, but Israeli authorities decided to attack in order to eliminate the Syrian threat, particularly the artillery batteries, which had caused so much trouble to Israel’s northern communities and was a major cause for the war. The operation was feared to be costly, however, as the Golan Heights, at its steepest points in its northern section, was situated on a rocky escarpment 500 meters from Israel’s plains below. Syrian defenses on the Golan Heights consisted of 40,000 troops and 250 tanks, and a series of strong fortifications of concrete bunkers, machine gun nests, pillboxes, and artillery emplacements. The forward approaches were open fields laid with thousands of land mines.
On the morning of June 9, Israeli planes attacked Syrian positions on the Golan Heights. The air strikes continued for four hours, but failed to cause significant damage to the defenses. Towards the noon hour, Israel ground units went on the offensive. The Israel Army High Command decided to attack on the Golan Height’s northern section, which was the steepest – but also the least defended, based on reconnaissance information. After sappers cleared land mines, armored bulldozers moved forward to create a road. Following behind the construction crews and equipment were the battle tanks and other armored units. The Israeli Army’s objective was the strategically located Qala, whose capture would allow the Israelis access to the Masada/Quneitra Road, the main thoroughfare through the Golan Heights. Qala’s capture also would permit the Israelis to attack other Syrian positions from the rear.
The Israeli advance was met with heavy fire from Syrian defenses atop the escarpment, which knocked out many bulldozers and tanks. Some Israeli units also lost their way and ended up in the direction of Za’ura. After five hours and sustaining considerable losses, the Israelis reached the top of the heights, helped considerably by cover from Israeli planes. To protect the flank of the Qala offensive, another infantry and armored thrust was made further north to attack 13 Syrian positions at Tel Fakhir. After seven hours and intense fighting that involved hand-to-hand combat, the Israelis overran Syrian positions, with considerable losses on both sides.
The Israelis also launched operations in the southern Golan Heights, whose slopes were more gradual than in the northern section. After several hours of fighting, the Syrian southern defenses at Dardara and Tel Hilal collapsed. By the evening of June 9, Israeli forces were pouring in across the length of the Golan Heights. Considerable numbers of Israeli reinforcements arrived from the Egyptian and Jordanian sectors, creating massive traffic congestions in Israeli streets as soldiers and war equipment were being moved to northern Israel. Fighting continued throughout the night as the Israelis attempted to extend their lines.
Syrian fortifications throughout most of the Golan Heights remained intact despite the Israeli breakthrough. On the morning of June 10, however, the Syrian government mistakenly announced that Quneitra, where the Syrian regional military headquarters was located, had fallen to the Israelis. Panic broke out in the Syrian defenses in the Golan Heights as soldiers and officers abandoned their positions and fled to Damascus, Syria’s capital. As Israeli forces entered and occupied Quneitra and other Syrian positions in the Golan Heights, they found considerable amounts of weapons, ammunitions, and military equipment that had been left behind by the Syrian Army. By the evening of June 10, Israel gained control of the Golan Heights, as a UN ceasefire came into effect. Because of the fighting, some 80,000 Syrian civilians were displaced.
Aftermath Israel achieved victory in one of the shortest wars in history, allowing it to expand its territory by three-fold; it had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.