1956 Suez War

Suez Crisis Tripartite Aggression Sinai War
Part of the Cold War and the Arab–Israeli conflict
Damaged Egyptian equipment
Date 29 October 1956 (1956-10-29) – 7 November 1956 (1956-11-07) (1 week and 2 days) (Sinai under Israeli occupation until March 1957) Location Gaza Strip and Egypt (Sinai and Suez Canal zone) Result Coalition military victory; Egyptian political victory Anglo-French withdrawal following international pressure (December 1956) Israeli occupation of Sinai (until March 1957) UNEF deployment in Sinai Straits of Tiran re-opened to Israeli shipping Resignation of Anthony Eden as British Prime Minister, end of Britain's role as a superpower Guy Mollet's position as French Prime Minister heavily damaged
Belligerents
Israel  United Kingdom  France	Egypt
Commanders and leaders
David Ben-Gurion Moshe Dayan Asaf Simhoni Haim Bar-Lev Avraham Yoffe Israel Tal Ariel Sharon Uri Ben-Ari Anthony Eden Gerald Templer Charles Keightley Manley Power René Coty Guy Mollet Pierre Barjot André Beaufre Jacques Massu	Gamal Abdel Nasser Abdel Hakim Amer Saadedden Mutawally Sami Yassa Jaafar al-Abd Salahedin Moguy Raouf Mahfouz Zaki
Strength
175,000 45,000 34,000	300,000
Casualties and losses
Israel: 231 killed 899 wounded 4 captured United Kingdom: 16 killed 96 wounded France: 10 killed 33 wounded	1,650–3,000 killed 1,000 civilians killed 4,900 wounded 5,000–30,000+ captured

Coalition military victory;
Egyptian political victory

The Suez Crisis, also named the Tripartite Aggression (in the Arab world) and the Kadesh Operation or Sinai War (in Israel), was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France. The aims were to regain Western control of the Suez Canal and to remove Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser from power. After the fighting had started, political pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations led to a withdrawal by the three invaders. The episode humiliated Great Britain and France and strengthened Nasser.

On October 29, Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai. Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to cease fire, which was ignored. On November 5, Britain and France landed paratroopers along the Suez Canal. The Egyptian forces were defeated, but they did block the canal to all shipping. It later became clear that the Israeli invasion and the subsequent Anglo-French attack had been planned beforehand by the three countries.

The three allies had attained a number of their military objectives, but the Canal was now useless and heavy political pressure from the United States and the USSR led to a withdrawal. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had strongly warned Britain not to invade; he now threatened serious damage to the British financial system by selling the US government's pound sterling bonds. Historians conclude the crisis "signified the end of Great Britain's role as one of the world's major powers". The Suez Canal was closed from October 1956 until March 1957. Israel fulfilled some of its objectives, such as attaining freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran.

As a result of the conflict, the United Nations created the UNEF Peacekeepers to police the Egyptian–Israeli border, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned, Canadian Minister of External Affairs Lester Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the USSR may have been emboldened to invade Hungary.

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