Six-Day War of 1967

The Six-Day War, fought from 5 to 10 June 1967, was a conflict in which Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan and Syria. It transformed territorial control in West Asia by placing large Arab territories and their Palestinian populations under Israeli military control.

Immediate territorial changes

• Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, extending its control to the eastern bank of the Suez Canal.
• Israel captured the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan, bringing the whole of Jerusalem under Israeli control.
• Israel captured the strategically important Golan Heights from Syria.

Legal and political significance

The war converted the Arab-Israeli dispute into a conflict centred on occupied territories, borders and Palestinian self-determination. Israeli control did not automatically confer internationally accepted sovereignty over the captured areas.

• The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242 in November 1967, calling for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the conflict and recognition of every state's right to live within secure and recognised boundaries.
• The resolution became the basis of the land-for-peace approach to subsequent Arab-Israeli diplomacy.
• Israel's measures concerning East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights were not recognised as lawful territorial acquisition by the UN Security Council.

Subsequent territorial evolution

• Under the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, Israel returned Sinai to Egypt; the withdrawal was completed in 1982.
• The West Bank remained under Israeli control, although the Oslo Accords later established limited Palestinian self-government in parts of it.
• Israel withdrew its settlers and permanent ground forces from Gaza in 2005, but the war's underlying disputes over borders and Palestinian statehood remained unresolved.