Netanyahu on October War: ‘Despite our vulnerable position, we have achieved victory’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented via Twitter on the anniversary of the 1973 October War, asserting: “Despite our vulnerable position at the beginning of the war, we have turned the odds in our favour and achieved victory. Three weeks after the sudden offensive carried out by the enemies, which was one of the most aggressive attacks in military history, our soldiers stood at the gates of Cairo and Damascus.”

The “Ramadan War” as it is called in Egypt, the “War of Liberation” as referred to by Syrians, or the “Yom Kippur War” for Israelis, took place when Egypt and Syria launched a massive military operation against Israel in 1973.

The October War was the fourth Arab-Israeli war after the 1948 war (the Palestine war), the 1956 war (the Suez War) and the 1967 war (the Six-Day War).

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During the 1967 war, Israel managed to occupy the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights and the West Bank, which was then under Jordanian rule, as well as the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip.

The October War broke out on 6 October, 1973, when the Egyptian army launched two sudden and simultaneous attacks in the occupied Sinai front, with the Syrian army in the occupied Golan Heights front, against Israeli forces.

According to Youm7, the Egyptian army’s brave soldiers crossed the Suez Canal and raised the Egyptian flag after liberating Sinai.

The war officially ended with signing the Agreement on Disengagement on 31 May, 1974. On that date, Israel agreed to return the city of Quneitra to Syria and the eastern bank of the Suez Canal to Egypt, in exchange for the withdrawal of Egyptian and Syrian forces from the armistice line and assigning a United Nations special force to monitor the implementation of the agreement.