Explainer: What happened on October 6, 1973? What's its link to Hamas' onslaught?

Not since the Yom Kippur war in October 1973 has Israel witnessed such a deadly and major surprise attack from air, sea and land.

On October 6, 2023, the Gaza-based Hamas group as part of their 'Operation Al-Aqsa Flood' fired over 5,000 rockets on Israel and simultaneously, gunmen from the Gaza strip went on a rampage in the nearby Israeli towns killing at least 700 Israelis and abducting many civilians.

The Israelis called it their 9/11 and retaliated killing over 400 Palestinians and more than 2,000 wounded. Many political analysts, however, feel the timing of this massive attack on Israel on October 6 was “symbolic” and intentional.

So, what significance does October 6 have for the Palestinians?

What is special about October 6?

October 6 is special for Jews since the Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Judaism. But, this date is not special just for being a holy day in Judaism (Yom Kippur can fall anytime in September or October ) but October 6, particularly, also marks the 50th anniversary of a key historic event, which shaped the future of the Arab-Israel conflict. That was the 1973 Yom Kippur war, often referred as the October war by the Arabs.

(Besides, October 6 back in 1939, was a significant day because in a speech to the Reichstag, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke of his plans to reorder the ethnic layout of Europe — a plan that would entail settling the “Jewish problem”)

Why did the Hamas decide to attack Israel on October 6?

Analysts feel the Hamas attack was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war. The Yom Kippur war was fought by an Arab coalition which wanted to regain their territories from Israel which they had lost in an earlier war.

In 1973, Egypt ruled by Anwar Sadat, and Syria, ruled by the Ba’athist autocrat Hafez al-Assad, led a coalition of Arab states to attack Israel to win back the territories they had lost to Israel in a six-day war in 1967. Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and Syria’s Golan Heights, large parts of historic Palestine, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967.

Meanwhile, in October 2023, Muhammad Deif, leader of Hamas’ military wing, has claimed notably that their recent offensive was waged against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, which it captured during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. He also cited the recent Israeli police raids on the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and the detention of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails as the provocation for the attack. The Hamas too called on "resistance fighters in the West Bank" as well as in "Arab and Islamic nations" to join the battle against Israel, which it accuses of "illegally occupying" Palestinian land.

The other common element

Both these attacks had a strong surprise element and caught Israel napping. The Hamas militant group sprung a nasty surprise on the Israelis when they fired rockets from the air and on the ground militants breached the borders and entered Israeli towns.

Rewinding to 1973, at 2 pm on October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria joined together to launch a two-front surprise military offensive on Israeli-occupied territories. In the south, Sadat crossed the border and sent five divisions totalling 100,000 soldiers and 1,350 tanks over the Suez Canal. In the north, for about an hour, 100 Syrian MiGs launched airstrikes while 600 artillery pieces battered the entire Israeli-occupied Golan, including civilian homes and infrastructure.

How did the Yom Kippur war pan out?

US sent massive military supplies to help Israel and geopolitical tensions ran high, leading the then-US President Richard Nixon to even issue a global nuclear alert. Arab countries got together and OPEC imposed an oil embargo on the US and other nations for supplying weapons to Israel. This led to an oil crisis worldwide. Nearly 20,000 people lost their lives in this 19-day war.

A ceasefire was finally announced on October 25.

The outcome of Yom Kippur war?

It was a turning point as the Middle East was never the same again. After the famous Camp David talks brokered by US President Jimmy Carter, Israel agreed to pull out its forces and civilians from Sinai in exchange for diplomatic ties with Egypt and access to the Suez Canal..

Egypt was accused of disregarding the Palestinian cause, but 50 years on more Arab countries like Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, UAE, Bahrain established diplomatic ties with Israel relegating the Palestinian issue to the side. Even though Israel did not pull out from the occupied Palestinian territories, the embargo on the US was lifted in 1974 following peace talks.

Fifty years after that Arab-Israeli war, Israel continues to occupy the Palestinian territory of West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. The US continues to view the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.