55 years ago/June 7, 1967

Israeli Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Yitzhak Rabin told the press that Israel defeated Egypt, they now tried to retreat behind the Suez Canal. He emphasized, that Israel acted alone, destroyed the air forces of four countries, crushed the Egyptian and the Jordanian armies, and their losses “weren’t high”. The Commander of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Mordechai Hod announced that 441 Arab aircraft was destroyed in the first three days. On the southern front, troops of Major General Israel Tal reached el-Qantara in the morning, but they were ordered to withdraw 30 km. In the other parts of the Sinai the Israeli troops continued advancing, mopping up Egyptian troops which hadn’t retreated yet. They reached Bir Gifgafa, closed the road to Ismailia, reached and closed the Gidi Pass. They also reached the Mitla Pass, however only a small unit could set up an ambush there, and when major Egyptian troops arrived, the Israeli unit got encircled. During the day naval and airborne units reached Sharm el-Sheikh, from there paratroopers began to advance northwards along the coast of Gulf of Suez. The Egyptian (then UAR officially) leadership started to admit the defeat by saying that their troops were fighting in the second line, but they still insisted that foreign warplanes helped Israel. On the Jordanian front, around noon the attack against the Old City of Jerusalem started. It was practically evacuated by the Jordanian forces, however snipers take their toll, and there were fights in the streets. At the Wailing Wall the Israeli troops stopped for a prayer – which scene became one of the most well-known picture of the war. After capturing Jerusalem, the Israeli troops captured Jericho as well. In the West Bank during the day the Jordanian forces put up fierce resistance some places, but the end of the day they were forced to retreat to the left bank of the River Jordan. By accepting the UN Security Council call for a ceasefire, the fights stopped on the Jordanian front at 20:00 GMT. The failure of the Jordanian army was explained different ways – sometimes according to the political background of the historians, researchers. The Jordanian army was trained, well equipped, however small, and they should have defended the longest armistice line with Israel. Historians from the Eastern Bloc seemed to have problems to explain the steps the Hashemite monarch. They should have explained why the “reactionary monarch” were fighting along the “progressive forces”, and they gave a bit of twisted answers, and tried to blame something on King Hussein. For example, they criticized the leaders of the Jordanian army. However, we have to take into consideration the circumstances, that King Hussein – misled by the fake news from Cairo and Damascus – practically fought an alternative war, tried to synchronize his operations with non-existent Egyptian and Syrian victories, manoeuvres and advances. On the northern front wasn’t any change, the opposite sides bombarded different targets. Meanwhile, the radios broadcasted fake news from Damascus about Syrian success. The UN Security Council held a meeting, accepted Resolution 234. According to it, Israel and Jordan informed them that they accepted the call for ceasefire at 20:00 GMT. From the Arab world and the Eastern Bloc the statements supporting the Arab countries involved in the war, blaming Israel and the imperialist, mainly the US continued. Arab countries announced the breaking the diplomatic relations with the UK and US, stopped the oil shipments.