Israel releases Sinai campaign archives on war’s 70th anniversary

Israel’s Defense Ministry on Sunday announced the launch of a website commemorating 70 years since the 1956 Sinai campaign, which according to the ministry features more than 4,500 photographs, alongside documents and maps, many previously unpublished.

“Operation Kadesh” was Israel’s military campaign against Egypt during the 1956 Suez Crisis, launched on Oct. 29 of that year and resulting in the capture of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip.

At an April 4, 1957, meeting of senior officers following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and Sinai, then-Prime Minister and Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion recalled telling the Cabinet about Gaza on Oct. 28, 1956, the eve of the campaign: “We must take it. ... If I believed in a miracle, I would want it to be swallowed by the sea.”

Ben-Gurion also said remaining in Gaza amid international isolation and having to suppress terrorism was beyond Israel’s capabilities and incompatible with its essential needs. “This terrorism would have destroyed us,” he said.

In another document, Ben-Gurion warned against assuming that future wars would resemble the Sinai campaign: “Tel Aviv will be bombed, Haifa will be bombed, and people will be killed. Not combatants—women, children.”

According to the ministry, the Israel Defense Forces and Defense Establishment Archive’s website documents preparations for “Operation Kadesh,” political and military decisions, combat operations and the war’s aftermath.

Materials cover the capture of Gaza and Rafah, an operation to rescue 65 Jews from Port Said, Israeli Air Force operational reviews and senior defense officials’ assessments.

The collection also profiles 149 commanders whose careers began during Israel’s War of Independence and who formed part of the IDF’s founding command cadre.