From the Liveblog of
Sunday, November 8, 2026
70 years after Suez War, Israel launches website with thousands of documents and photos, including previously unpublished ones
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The Defense Ministry’s IDF and Defense Establishment Archives launches a new comprehensive website containing over 4,500 documents, photos and maps from the 1956 Suez War, 70 years after it ended, some of which were previously not made public.
The website [in Hebrew only] features original copies of documents related to the preparations for the nine-day war, discussions and decisions by government and military officials, and the developments during the fighting and after it.
Between October 29 and November 7, 1956, Israel, followed by France and the UK in a coordinated attack, invaded the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip with the intention of gaining control of the Suez Canal and ousting Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
International political pressure forced a ceasefire, followed by the three armies withdrawing months later without achieving their primary objectives, though they did score military victories.
Among the newly revealed quotes is one by then-Defense Ministry director general Shimon Peres — a future prime minister and president — who laid out then-prime minister David Ben Gurion’s worldview: “A victory by us in a battle doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the final battle, but an Arab victory might be a final victory.”
Many of the quotes claimed by the IDF and Defense Establishment Archives to have been revealed for the first time today have in fact been public for many years, including a Ben Gurion quote that Israel “must take” Gaza and that “if I believed in miracles, I’d wish for it to be swallowed up by the sea.”
The Times of Israel Community.