Battle of Suez - Background

Background

At 4:00 PM on Tuesday, October 23, the United Nations Security Council met in New York to reconfirm the ceasefire and send observers to the fighting front. At 6:00 PM, General Ensio Siilasvuo, head of the UN Emergency Force in Cairo, called the Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan, and told him of the decision. Dayan suggested that the ceasefire go into effect at 7:00 AM local time, thirty-six hours after the original ceasefire was supposed take effect, and Siilasvuo accepted. The Israeli Chief of Staff, David Elazar, said in the Kirya that he was in a dilemma. From a military perspective, the IDF needed a few more days to make the Egyptian Third Army surrender and cut off the Second Army, which would collapse the entire Egyptian military. On the other hand, Israel had a great debt to the United States as a result of the massive arms shipments of Operation Nickel Grass. He later said it was the latter consideration that made him accept the ceasefire.

The town of Suez had about 260,000 residents before the War of Attrition, but most of them left during that conflict. However, there were enough men to form a militia, which would make up part of the city's defense force. On October 23, division commander Major-General Avraham Adan had three armored brigades and a makeshift infantry brigade made up of five or six battalions. By October 24, Israel had two brigades on the outskirts of the city, and one battalion from Yoffe's paratroopers brigade southwest of the town at the Gulf of Suez near the old oil refinery. Suez was thus completely isolated from Egypt from the west, and so was most of the Third Army. Yoffe had pushed across the Sarag road west of Suez put a further blocked the Egyptians. Capturing Suez was not considered psychologically or strategically important, although it was presumed to hold supplies for the Third Army. Throughout October 22 to 23, many Egyptian officers and soldiers had withdrawn into Suez. Most of these belonged to administrative and supply units that had been stationed on the west bank of the canal. They also contained a number of units from Third Army that had been engaging Israeli forces since October 16. The number of Egyptian forces inside Suez reached almost 5,000 men, possessing only small arms and assault rifles. Brigadier General Yusuf 'Afifi commanding the 19th Infantry Division east of the canal, reinforced the city with an ATGM company and a tank-hunting team. On its way to Suez, the company had expended its missiles in an engagement with Israeli tanks, destroying more than nine tanks. This left Egyptian forces in the city with a small number of RPG-7 weapons and RPG-43 grenades.