Editing Suez Canal (section)

===Arab–Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973===
{{see also|Closure of the Suez Canal (1967-1975)}}
[[File:Egyptianbridge.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Egyptian vehicles crossing the Suez Canal on 7 October 1973, during the [[Yom Kippur War]]]]
[[File:Israeli Tanks Cross the Suez Canal - Flickr - Israel Defense Forces.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|An Israeli [[M60 tank|M60]]/[[Magach]] tank crosses the Suez Canal, 1973 ]]
After the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], Egypt closed the Canal to Israeli shipping,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Khadduri |first=Majid |date=1968 |title=Closure of the Suez Canal to Israeli Shipping |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1190847 |journal=Law and Contemporary Problems |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=147–157 |doi=10.2307/1190847 |issn=0023-9186 |jstor=1190847}}</ref> despite UN Security Council resolutions from 1949 and 1951 urging it not to, on the grounds that hostilities had ended with the [[1949 Armistice Agreements|1949 armistice agreement]].

On 16 May 1967, Nasser ordered [[United Nations Emergency Force|UNEF]] peacekeeping forces out of the [[Sinai Peninsula]], including the Suez Canal area. Egyptian troops were sent into Sinai to take their place. On 21 May, Israel protested Nasser's order to close the [[Straits of Tiran]] to Israeli trade.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=Betty S. |title=A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels, and Rogues |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=2016 |location=Stanford, California |pages=331–336}}</ref>

After the 1967 [[Six-Day War]], [[Israel Defense Forces|Israeli forces]] occupied the Sinai Peninsula, including the entire east bank of the Suez Canal. In the following years the tensions between Egypt and Israel intensified and from March 1969 until August 1970, a war of attrition took place as the then Egyptian president, [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]], tried to retake the territories occupied by Israel during the conflict. The fighting ceased after the death of Nasser on 28 September 1970. After this conflict there were no changes in the distribution of territory, but the underlying tensions persisted.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=War of Attrition {{!}} History, Combatants, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-Attrition-1969-1970 |access-date=17 May 2022 |website=britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

Unwilling to allow the Israelis to use the canal, Egypt imposed a blockade which closed the canal to all shipping immediately after the beginning of the Six-Day War. The canal remained blocked for eight years. There was no anticipation of this event and consequently fifteen cargo ships, known as the "[[Yellow Fleet]]", were trapped in the canal, and remained there until its reopening in 1975.<ref>Feyrer, James. 2021. "Distance, Trade, and Income — the 1967 to 1975 Closing of the Suez Canal as a Natural Experiment." ''Journal of Development Economics'' 153 (102708): 1–32.</ref>

On 6 October 1973, during the [[Yom Kippur War]], the Canal was the scene of [[Operation Badr (1973)|Operation Badr]], in which the Egyptian army crossed into Israeli-occupied Sinai. Much wreckage from this conflict remains visible along the canal's edges.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Dunstan |first=Simon |title=The Yom Kippur War 1973: 2, the Sinai. |publisher=[[Osprey]] |year=2003 |location=London |pages=35–60}}</ref>  On 22 October 1973, Israeli forces counter-attacked by crossing the Suez Canal into Egypt and advancing towards Suez City,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=L. Carl |last2=Rabinovich |first2=Abraham |date=2004 |title=The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20034020 |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=83 |issue=3 |pages=154 |doi=10.2307/20034020 |jstor=20034020 |issn=0015-7120}}</ref> where they remained until after Israel and Egypt signed on 18 January 1974, an agreement, commonly known as Sinai I, with the official name of ''Sinai Separation of Forces Agreement,'' which included a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the western side of the Suez Canal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Egyptian - Israeli Agreement on Disengagement of Forces in Pursuance of the Geneva Peace Conference (Sinai I) {{!}} UN Peacemaker |url=https://peacemaker.un.org/egyptisrael-disengagementforces74#:~:text=Document%20Retrieval-,Egyptian%20-%20Israeli%20Agreement%20on%20Disengagement%20of%20Forces%20in%20Pursuance%20of,later%20known%20as%20Sinai%20I). |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=peacemaker.un.org}}</ref>