The war broke out suddenly at midday on Yom Kippur in 1973, when the Egyptian and Syrian armies simultaneously attacked IDF forces in the Sinai Desert in the south and the Golan Heights in the north. The Egyptians managed to cross the Suez Canal and move large forces into the Sinai. The Syrian army attacked the border along the Golan Heights, taking advantage of its numerical advantage and penetrated the central and southern Golan, even threatening the towns in the Jordan Valley.
The Israeli IDF, utilizing regular army and reserve soldiers, blocked the Syrian advance, repelled the Syrians from the Golan Heights within just a few days, and proceeded eastward, eventually threatening the outskirts of Damascus.
On the southern front, the campaign ended after difficult battles and the heroic crossing of the Suez Canal, this time toward the west. IDF forces were halted some 101 kilometers from Cairo.
The State of Israel faced an existential threat, and the soldiers of the IDF fought selflessly to defend it. The heavy battles led to 2674 casualties, officers and soldiers, as well as some 10,000 injured.
It has been 50 years since the Yom Kippur War, but those who fought in the battles still bear the weight of the war in their hearts and on their bodies. They also remember their friends and comrades in arms, who remained forever young. The People of Israel reach out lovingly to their families.
“A thousand flowers will bloom in and among the trenches, and they shall attest that we remember them all”, Didi Manosi
