Israeli Archives Release Ben-Gurion Files for 70th Anniversary of Suez Crisis

Israel's military and defense establishment have released a collection of archival documents marking the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Sinai Campaign, known as Operation Kadesh or the Suez Crisis. The materials include remarks by former prime minister and defense minister David Ben-Gurion, who said he wished the Gaza Strip would sink into the sea and warned that future wars would bring devastating civilian casualties.

Ben-Gurion made his comments about Gaza during a cabinet meeting on October 28, 1956, on the eve of the operation. Months later, on April 4, 1957, he repeated them at a conference of senior officers following the IDF's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. "The Gaza Strip is an 'embarrassing' objective [..] We have to take it. It stands in our way. If I believed in miracles, I would wish it would sink into the sea," he said.

In another newly released document, Ben-Gurion cautioned IDF commanders not to treat the success of Operation Kadesh as a guide for future conflicts. Although casualties had been limited during the Sinai Campaign, he said, there was no reason to assume the same would be true in a future war. He warned that "Tel Aviv will be bombed, Haifa will be bombed, and people will be killed. Not combatants, women, children," and urged commanders: "And do not draw an analogy [..] from the Sinai Campaign to the next war."

In his remarks about the Gaza Strip, Ben-Gurion described the difficulty of maintaining Israeli control over the territory. "We know that the Gaza Strip is a problem under any administration, whatever that administration may be, whether it is an Israeli administration, or an Israeli administration plus the UN, or a UN administration without Israel," he said. Egyptian rule was the worst possible outcome in his view, but he argued that staying carried its own heavy price. "But it was clear that our remaining in Gaza, after the world had ostracized us, and there would be terror there that we would have to suppress, was beyond Israel's capabilities and vital needs. This terror would have destroyed us."

Ben-Gurion also addressed the Palestinian population of the Strip and said he had resisted annexation from the outset. "And therefore, from the very beginning, I strongly opposed those who demanded the annexation of Gaza. What Israel lacks is not another 300,000 Arabs, Arab citizens, and ones like these," he said. He warned that prolonged control could harm Israel beyond the military sphere: "And perhaps this would have destroyed us, not militarily, but morally [..] If, in the eyes of the people and in the eyes of the world, we lose our moral right to exist, Israel cannot exist."

Among the released materials is a handwritten account by Shimon Peres, who was serving as director-general of the Defense Ministry at the time. Peres described Ben-Gurion as having made two seemingly contradictory decisions: first to go to war and then to withdraw. "He also explained to us that wars would not solve the problem of Arab-Israeli relations, since our victory in battle does not necessarily mean the last battle, but an Arab victory could be the final victory," Peres wrote.

Other documents concern Operation Honio, during which an Israeli team rescued 65 Jews from Port Said, Egypt, in November 1956. In a report submitted to the head of Military Intelligence, Lt. Col. Aryeh Eliav wrote: "My role within the team was to rescue Jews and bring them to Israel."

Additional files detail Israel Air Force activity during the war, including a plan to attack Egyptian airfields that was never carried out, accounts of an accidental attack on IDF troops, and records of the attack on the Egyptian destroyer Ibrahim el-Awal.

The IDF and the Defense Establishment Archive at the Defense Ministry are publishing the documents on a dedicated website for the anniversary. The site brings together more than 4,500 photographs, documents, and maps, many never previously available to the public, along with information on 149 commanders who began their military careers during Israel's War of Independence and later became part of the IDF's founding command leadership.