Beginning of the Suez Crisis

Date: October 29, 1956 • Location: Saint Catherine, Egypt

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1956.

The Suez Crisis began with Israel invading the Sinai Peninsula and pushing Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.

The Suez Crisis, also known as the second Arab–Israeli war, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, with the primary objective of re-opening the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade prevented Israeli passage. After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 31 October in an attempt to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal. The countries came under heavy political pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Nations, prompting their withdrawal from Egypt.