Operation Kadesh Begins

The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, (Arabic: أزمة السويس - العدوان الثلاثي‎ ʾAzmat al-Sūwais/Al-ʿIdwān al-Thalāthī; French: Crise du canal de Suez; Hebrew: מבצע קדש‎ Kadesh Campaign, or מלחמת סיני Sinai War) was a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956. 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, which was in response to Egypt recognizing the People's Republic of China during the height of tensions between China and Taiwan.

Operation Kadesh received its name from the ancient city of Kadesh, mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy and in more distant antiquity the site of the battle fought by the forces of Pharaoh Ramses II against the Hittites, located in the northern Sinai Area. Israeli military planning for this operation in the Sinai hinged on four main military objectives; Sharm el-Sheikh, al-Arish, Abu Uwayulah, and the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian blockade of the Tiran Straits was based at Sharm el-Sheikh, and by capturing the town, Israel would have access to the Red Sea for the first time since 1953, which would allow it to restore the trade benefits of secure passage to the Indian Ocean. The Gaza Strip was chosen as another military objective because Israel wished to remove the training grounds for Fedayeen groups, and because Israel recognised that Egypt could use the territory as a staging ground for attacks against the advancing Israeli troops. Israel advocated rapid advances, for which a potential Egyptian flanking attack would present even more of a risk. al-Arish and Abu Uwayulah were important hubs for soldiers, equipment, and centres of command and control of the Egyptian Army in the Sinai. Capturing them would deal a deathblow to the Egyptian's strategic operation in the entire Peninsula. The capture of these four objectives were hoped to be the means by which the entire Egyptian Army would rout, and fall back into Egypt proper, which British and French forces would then be able to push up against an Israeli advance, and crush in a decisive encounter.

On the first day of the war, because Israel's intelligence service expected Jordan to enter the war on Egypt's side, soldiers were stationed along the Israeli-Jordanian frontier. The Israel Border Police militarized the Israel-Jordan border, including the Green Line with the West Bank, during the first few hours of the war. This resulted in the killing of 48 Arab civilians by the Israel Border Police, and is known as the Kafr Qasim massacre. This event and the resulting trials of officers had major effects on Israeli law relating to the ethics in war and more subtle effects on the legal status of Arab citizens of Israel.

The war had serious impact on the moral and political strength of the nations involved. Britain and France achieved nothing but to prove their lack of political insight and maturity, as their actions nearly provoked more countries to enter into a big scale war. Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser rose to star status, as Egypt achieved all of its initial goals, despite the losses on the battle field. This war also became the start of USA's leading position as mediator in the Middle East, a position the country held up until early 1990's.
No war indemnities have ever been paid to Egypt by the aggressors.