Operation Boxer - Aftermath

Aftermath

The Israeli Air Force flew some 500 sorties during Operation Boxer, mauling Egyptian air defences and inflicting considerable damage on Egyptian fortifications and artillery along the Suez Canal. Egyptian losses were estimated at approximately 300 soldiers. Tactically successful, the Boxer offensive temporarily scaled down the fighting along the canal. In the long run, however, the Egyptian Army recovered from the losses it had suffered and fighting resumed with even greater intensity. Operation Boxer failed to deter Egypt from carrying on the War of Attrition. Having already lost face to Israeli air power during the 1967 war, the fighting of July 1969 was unlikely to cause a reversal of Egypt intentions and instead only served to escalate existing tensions along the frontier. This in turn would lead the IAF to become the IDF's "flying artillery", bridging the quantitative gap between Egyptian and Israeli forces, a role the IAF had previously been reluctant to play and one which would draw it even further into the fighting.