David Ben-Gurion

October 29–31, 1956 · 400 total casualties

The Mitla drop simultaneously opened Operation Kadesh and triggered the Anglo-French ultimatum — exactly as the Sèvres Protocol intended. Israel's paratroops were the tripwire of the entire conspiracy. The battle also introduced Ariel Sharon to the Israeli public as a brilliant and dangerously disobedient commander — a reputation that would define his career for fifty years.

October 29 – November 2, 1956 · 1,200 total casualties

Abu Ageila was the hardest conventional battle of the Sinai Campaign — proof that Egyptian regulars could fight effectively in prepared defensive positions even against superior Israeli initiative. The lessons informed Israeli planning: in 1967, a night assault with coordinated artillery, infantry, and paratroopers against the same fortified position would succeed brilliantly in the Six-Day War's most impressive tactical achievement.

October 31 – November 1, 1956 · 600 total casualties

The capture of Rafah cut off Egyptian forces in the Gaza Strip and demonstrated Israel's ability to conduct sustained night combat. The northern coastal route through Rafah became the main Israeli axis of advance toward the Canal, with subsequent Israeli columns covering the remaining distance to the Canal in less than 24 hours. The speed of exploitation after Rafah shocked Egyptian commanders.

November 2–5, 1956 · 150 total casualties

Opening the Straits of Tiran was one of Ben-Gurion's primary strategic objectives for the entire campaign — more important to him than anything involving the Anglo-French operation to the north. Israel had been economically strangled by the Tiran blockade. US pressure would force Israeli withdrawal from Sharm el-Sheikh by March 1957, but a key condition attached: Egyptian forces could not re-block the Straits. When Nasser expelled UN peacekeepers and closed the Straits again in May 1967, Israel treated it as a casus belli — the direct link to the Six-Day War.

October 29 – November 5, 1956 · 3,000 total casualties

The Sinai Campaign proved Israel's military capability but exposed the cynical nature of the Sèvres Protocol — the secret plan Israel, Britain and France concocted and then denied. The US–Soviet veto forced a humiliating withdrawal, but Israel gained years of peace on its southern border with UNEF peacekeepers and Egyptian military forces kept out of Sinai. The campaign revealed that European powers could no longer act independently in the Middle East without US approval.