Newly released Israeli military documents reveal Ben-Gurion’s stark views on Gaza in 1956

Newly released Israeli military documents reveal that Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, once said he wished the Gaza Strip would “sink into the sea,” expressing deep concern about attacks launched from the territory and the broader threat posed by Egypt.

The Israeli Defense Establishment Archive and the IDF released the documents to mark the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Sinai War, known internationally as the Suez Crisis and in Israel as Operation Kadesh.

At the time, Gaza was under Egyptian control, and Palestinian terrorists known as fedayeen used the coastal enclave to launch attacks on Israeli border communities. Egypt was also rapidly expanding its military capabilities with Soviet assistance.

On the eve of the operation, October 28, 1956, Ben-Gurion warned senior military officials of the danger of an Egyptian attack, saying, "Tel Aviv will be bombed, Haifa will be bombed, and people will be killed. Not combatants, women, children," according to the newly released documents.

Ben-Gurion viewed Gaza as a key part of the security threat posed by Egypt and its control of the neighboring 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," Ben-Gurion stated.

Israel launched the 1956 military campaign in cooperation with France and the United Kingdom, aiming to stop attacks from Gaza and break Egypt’s blockade of Israeli shipping through the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba. Israeli forces quickly captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.

In another document, Ben-Gurion described the military campaign as a success, with limited Israeli casualties, but warned IDF commanders against assuming that future conflicts would be as easy.

"And do not draw an analogy [...] from the Sinai Campaign to the next war," Ben-Gurion cautioned. In 1957, under pressure from the United States, Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula.

The newly released documents also show that Ben-Gurion viewed Gaza as a long-term security and political challenge, regardless of who governed 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," the prime minister explained.

Although Ben-Gurion opposed Egyptian control of Gaza, he was also concerned about the moral consequences of Israel annexing the territory and incorporating its Arab population.

"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, referring to Gaza’s population at the time.

"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," Ben-Gurion warned.

Israel unilaterally withdrew its forces and thousands of Jewish residents from Gaza in 2005. Two years later, Hamas violently ousted its rival Fatah and seized control of the territory.

The released documents also include a handwritten account by Shimon Peres, who served as director-general of the Defense Ministry at the time. Peres described Ben-Gurion as aware of the limitations of military action and the fact that battlefield victories would not necessarily resolve the broader Arab-Israeli conflict.

"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.

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