June 5, 1967

Six-Day War

Six-Day War begins with Israel's Operation Focus and ground offensive

Between roughly 7:45 and 10:35 a.m., Israeli aircraft attacked 19 Egyptian air bases in two waves — catching most Egyptian aircraft on the ground.

Morning, 5 June 1967: Operation Focus

Israel opened the war on 5 June 1967 with Operation Focus, a surprise morning air attack on Egyptian airfields that destroyed most of Egypt's usable combat aircraft on the ground and severely damaged its air bases. Contemporary Israeli estimates reported by U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings claimed more than 300 aircraft destroyed in the opening waves.

Israel committed nearly its entire striking air force to the raid, leaving only a small defensive force at home. At the same time, Israeli armored and infantry forces crossed into the Egyptian-held Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip.

The fighting widens the same morning

Jordanian aircraft and artillery entered the fighting later that morning. Jordanian troops occupied the UNTSO Government House compound in Jerusalem — the UN observers' own headquarters — after which Israeli forces displaced them amid heavy fighting reported to begin around 11:30 GMT.

After Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi aircraft attacked, the Israeli Air Force struck their airfields as well, so combat spread from the Egyptian front to the Jordanian and Syrian fronts on the war's first day.

By nightfall

U.S. diplomatic reporting judged by the end of 5 June that Israel had won a decisive victory over the Egyptian air force and also over the Jordanian and Syrian air forces. Israeli ground troops were advancing in Sinai and Gaza, with sustained combat around Jerusalem and along the Syrian frontier.

Two common misplacements belong to other days: the Battle of Ammunition Hill began at approximately 2:30 a.m. on 6 June, and Israel's ground offensive against the Golan Heights came later in the war. Whether the opening attack is best characterized as preemptive, preventive or aggressive remains disputed; the operational sequence is not.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 3 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

Whether Israel’s opening attack should be characterized as “preemptive,” “preventive,” or aggressive remains politically and historiographically disputed. The operational sequence is not disputed: Israel launched the large opening air and ground attacks on Egypt on June 5.
Contemporary aircraft-loss totals generally originated with belligerents and vary by source. The figure included here is explicitly labeled as an Israeli estimate reported in a professional military history.