The Battle of Suez was fought on October 24–25, 1973 between the Israel Defense Forces and the Egyptian Army in the Egyptian city of Suez. It was the closing battle of the Yom Kippur War, before a ceasefire took effect.
On October 23, with the imminent arrival of UN observers to the front, Israel decided to capture Suez, assuming it would be poorly defended. An armored brigade and an infantry battalion from the Paratroopers Brigade were committed to the task, and entered the city without a battle plan. The armored column was ambushed and suffered heavy losses, while the paratroopers came under intense fire, with many trapped inside a local building. The armored column and part of the infantry were evacuated during the day, while the main paratrooper battalion eventually managed to leave the city and return to Israeli lines. This battle is considered a rare example of defenders successfully repelling an attack in urban warfare.
Background
At 4:00 pm on Tuesday, October 23, the United Nations Security Council met in New York City to reconfirm the ceasefire and send observers to the fighting front. At 6:00 pm, General Ensio Siilasvuo, head of the UN Emergency Force in Cairo, called the Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan, and told him of the decision. Dayan suggested that the ceasefire go into effect at 7:00 am local time, thirty-six hours after the original ceasefire was supposed take effect, and Siilasvuo accepted. The Israeli Chief of Staff, David Elazar, said in the Kirya that he was in a dilemma. From a military perspective, the IDF needed a few more days to make the Egyptian Third Army surrender and cut off the Second Army, which would collapse the entire Egyptian military. On the other hand, Israel had a great debt to the United States as a result of the massive arms shipments of Operation Nickel Grass. He later said it was the latter consideration that made him accept the ceasefire.
The town of Suez had about 260,000 residents before the War of Attrition, but most of them left during that conflict. However, there were enough men to form a militia, which would make up part of the city's defense force. On October 23, division commander Major-General Avraham Adan had three armored brigades and a makeshift infantry brigade made up of five or six battalions. By October 24, Israel had two brigades on the outskirts of the city, and one battalion from Yoffe's paratroopers brigade southwest of the town at the Gulf of Suez near the old oil refinery. Suez was thus completely isolated from Egypt from the west, and so was most of the Third Army. Yoffe had pushed across the Sarag road west of Suez put a further blocked the Egyptians. Capturing Suez was not considered psychologically or strategically important, although it was presumed to hold supplies for the Third Army. Throughout October 22 to 23, many Egyptian officers and soldiers had withdrawn into Suez. Most of these belonged to administrative and supply units that had been stationed on the west bank of the canal. They also contained a number of units from Third Army that had been engaging Israeli forces since October 16. The number of Egyptian forces inside Suez reached almost 5,000 men, possessing only small arms and assault rifles. Brigadier General Yusuf 'Afifi commanding the 19th Infantry Division east of the canal, reinforced the city with an ATGM company and a tank-hunting team. On its way to Suez, the company had expended its missiles in an engagement with Israeli tanks, destroying more than nine tanks. This left Egyptian forces in the city with a small number of RPG-7 weapons and RPG-43 grenades.
Prelude
At 2:00 am, General Shmuel Gonen called Adan and asked him if he could capture Suez in the two to two and half hours between dawn and the ceasefire. Adan answered that it depended on the Egyptian defenses in the town, but that he thought that at least part of the town could be taken. Gonen said: "Okay, if it's Beersheba, go ahead; if it's Stalingrad, don't do it!", referring to Operation Yoav and the Battle of Stalingrad, respectively. Adan gave his orders accordingly. Israel argued that the attack would not be a violation of the ceasefire if it was launched before 7:00 am, even if the battle continued after that hour, since the Arabs were the ones who chose when to start the war and when to call for a ceasefire. Israel also claimed that the ceasefire did not apply to "mopping up" operations that were altering the rear areas and not the front line. Intelligence knew of a commando battalion, two infantry battalions and an antitank missile company. Since Egyptian soldiers had been mostly surrendering during the previous two days, Adan assumed the defenders of Suez would not resist.
An armored brigade, under the command of Colonel Aryeh Keren, had set up its headquarters west of Suez. Keren was in charge of the attack and ordered Yossi Yoffe to lead the attack with his reserve paratroopers using nine captured Soviet APCs, and drive up the main street of the town. He said the confidence based on which he was being sent was groundless. He said he had only one small map and had seen no air photos and asked for time to draw a plan. Adan pressured Keren to capture Suez before the arrival of the observers, and Keren told Yoffe that "in the armored corps, we take our orders while we're on the move", and gave thirty minutes to organize. A tank battalion, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Nahum Zaken was to lead the attack with its own infantry detachment, while Yoffe was to follow and leave platoons to secure the intersections.
Battle
Ambush
At 10:50 Zaken's column, stretched for over a mile, started moving up the main street, an extension of the Cairo-Suez highway. His battalion was divided into three groups, each containing eight tanks, each tank followed by an APC or halftrack. Zaken had three miles to go before reaching a large square on the bank of the Gulf of Suez. Along the way, he saw Egyptian soldiers, mostly unarmed, and some of them raised their hands in surrender when they saw the Israeli column. All the Israeli tank and APC commanders were standing in their turrets.
Meeting no resistance, the column reached the second intersection at the Al-Arba'een square. A member of the militia, Mahmoud 'Awad, fired two RPG rounds at the lead tank. One round caused superficial damage, and the other missed. Further ahead, the militia had set up another ambush. Ibrahim Suleiman, positioned in a hideout between Cinema Royal and Cinema Egypt, heard the explosions, and asked his comrade, Mohamed Sarhan, to prepare an RPG round. At a range of 12 meters, Suleiman fired his RPG, hitting the turret ring. The tank blew up, and its cannon tilted to the ground. Moments later, Sarhan fired an RPG round against the APC trailing the lead tank. The APC, carrying paratroopers inside, caught fire. At this point, masses of civilians and soldiers began moving towards the square from the adjacent buildings and from roads leading to the square. The column came to a halt, and began receiving heavy small arms fire, also coming under attack by hand grenades. Within minutes, twenty out of the twenty-four Israeli tank commanders were hit. The Israelis panicked, and began disembarking their vehicles and taking cover in nearby buildings. One group of soldiers tried to enter Cinema Royal, but were repulsed at the entrance. One of the APCs that were hit was carrying the brigade's intelligence group. The group abandoned the APC, and all nine men entered a nearby building, where they were presumably killed. The remainder of the battalion turned around to retreat, which was disorderly. The retreating forces came under attack by small arms, grenades and Molotov cocktails. Four tanks came up behind Sidi Al-Arba'een Mosque, but were ambushed by soldiers from the 19th Division, forcing the tanks to retreat.
Zaken, in the second tank, tried to reach his company commanders on the radio, but got no reply. He called the crewmen and told and learned that many of the commanders were either dead or wounded. He told them to keep moving to get out of the ambush and fire all weapons. The battalion made it to the square at the end of the streets and lined up facing the sources of fire. One tank commander Captain Menashe Goldblatt, who had been hit in the shoulder and lost his consciousness, recovered and was asked by Zaken to go from tank to tank and talk to the crews. He found that many of the commanders were either dead or wounded, and that many of the men were in shock. He appointed gunners and loaders as tank commanders, assigned them fire sectors and told them to switch their radio frequency from the company frequency to the battalion frequency so that they could speak directly to Zaken. One tank commander was not wounded but refused to take his head out of the turret and Goldblatt warned him that he would personally fire a shell at him if he didn't start functioning.
The casualties were transferred to an APC which surprised the Egyptians as it drove back up the main street, and managed to make it through. The APC crew left the casualties at an aid station and tried to drive back and rejoin the battalion. Halfway through the APC was hit by an RPG, which killed one man and wounded almost all the others, but the driver managed to get out of the city again. A second APC carrying dead and wounded tried to make a dash out of the city and was stopped by heavy fire, but the driver heard on the radio that the paratroopers were on their way.
Trap
The paratroopers started going down the avenue and came under fire. They could not distinguish where the enemy fire was coming from. Yoffe's APC was hit by an RPG, killing four of his men and wounding him as well as others. The vehicles pulled over and the soldiers took cover in adjacent buildings, most of them entering Al-Arba'een Police Station, a two-story building surrounded by a tall brick wall. In a very brief firefight the paratroopers wounded two and captured eight policemen. Ten minutes later the second floor was cleared. Lieutenant David Amit, the ranking unwounded officer, organized the defenses of the fifty paratroopers inside. He posted men at windows and behind the brick wall in the front of the building to block the entrance. A room was used as an aid station. Five men positioned themselves on the roof an adjacent building and began firing on the surrounding Egyptians. The policemen launched two attempts to break into the police station and rescue those held inside. In one of the attempts, the Egyptians broke into the building from a side entrance and advanced toward the aid station, and the battalion doctor and his medics opened fire on them. Yoffe's leg had been badly ripped but he refused morphine in order to stay alert. When the Egyptian fire stopped, he told his men that the Egyptians were preparing for an attack. The building was then attacked by RPGs and grenades, and the second floor caught fire. Yoffe told the doctor to burn the maps and papers that might help the Egyptian intelligence. Having lost much blood, he kept losing consciousness. The fire was eventually doused and the attack repulsed. Both attempts failed had cost the Egyptians another eight policemen killed.
Outside the police station, both sides were still firing on each other. A few wounded Israelis who were unable to take cover in the nearby buildings lay stranded on the streets. The Egyptians concentrated their fire against the paratroopers in the building. The Israelis decided to release a police officer to inform the Egyptians of their desire to surrender, provided the Egyptians guaranteed they would not be harmed. The police officer left the building and told Sarhan that the Israelis wanted to surrender. Sarhan took the officer to Colonel Fathy 'Abbas, head of intelligence in the southern sector of the canal. 'Abbas met both men before noon that day, and was enthusiastic to accept the Israeli surrender and end the fighting, especially considering the potential intelligence gains. 'Abbas asked both men to go back to the police station and negotiate terms of surrender with the Israelis. They were unable to enter the building however, as the shooting would not stop and there was no overall commander in control of the militia surrounding the police station. The police officer, an old man, lost his nerve and would not come near the building. Consequently, no negotiations took place and there would be no Israeli surrender.