Suez Crisis · War Crimes & Atrocities

The Darkest Hours

The Suez Crisis produced a relatively limited atrocity record, reflecting its short duration (10 days of active combat) and its primarily military character. The primary documented incidents concern the Port Said urban fighting — where both Anglo-French forces and Egyptian defenders killed civilians and fighters in difficult to distinguish circumstances — and the Khan Yunis and Rafah massacres in Gaza, where Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians and fedayeen suspects following the Sinai campaign. The Suez Crisis's most significant humanitarian consequences were not direct atrocities but political: the precedent that military aggression by Western powers against nationalist Arab governments would no longer be tolerated, and the acceleration of Egyptian nationalism under Nasser.