horrible truth that he had sunk in the country was mortal danger. alongside the heavy aerial strikes israel would launch its ground offensive. to armored divisions would attack across the nine hundred sixty seven cease fire line known as the popular line along the damascus road towards the syrian capital sixty kilometers to the east. at first light on eleventh of october the assault began. despite fierce syrian resistance the israelis advanced capturing territories deep inside the syrian mainland. but. in the above it is. the retreat began when the israelis launched a massive counterattack the first division started to retreat before the israeli

army. when it did it had almost two hundred fifty tanks and the infantry brigades behind it they started to retreat to this resulted in the advance of the israeli army i remember that day the president issued an order dismissing the commander of that division and appointing another in his place or the man. stories emerged that assad's punishment for his commanders went beyond mere dismissal. and as. i remember yes more than one officer was arrested and it said that some of them were executed. there was one senior commander that president assad summoned and asked him to account for himself with the commander then shot himself in front of the president. assad's rage was borne of the anger he felt towards his allies in cairo.

the egyptians had successfully stormed across the canal on the first day of war. they had quickly established a defensive bridge had ten kilometers deep and repulsed all the israeli armored attacks. but since then they had moved not an inch further east into sinai. the liver ace said the president said kept calling president sadat telling him mr president advance the whole israeli armed forces are in front of us and we are taking aerial strikes by the entire israeli air force there is nothing stopping you from advancing deep into sinai as we agreed but there was no answer. when i took. eight months earlier and to meeting in egypt set out on our side had forged a plan with a common purpose they had agreed to launch a war against israel on two fronts. but now it seemed the two presidents had

entirely different concepts of the war they had planned together. as the told me that from the moment of the seizure of power is ambition his dream was to avenge the siege of ninety six to seven when syria had lost. the two israel us themselves have been defense of the stuff so i. thank you felt as with personal responsibility for the recovery of the land. i said saw the wall which he was planning as the war of liberation. sadat on the other hand had been planning for a limited war to focus the minds of the world superpowers and jumpstart the stalled peace process. but i wouldn't you said that when president said that came to power he met with us in march nineteenth seventy one he told us i just need to get things back on track just give me ten centimeters of land in the east and

that will be enough to show what i had. a week into the war it's possible target had already been surpassed it seemed a swift victory might be in sight. in the early hours of october the thirteenth he was woken for an urgent meeting. the british ambassador had come with an offer to broker a united nations cease fire resolution the israelis he told sadat were ready to accept the cease fire based on the current positions. saddam kaka shade sad not sorry israeli army had been hit hard the israeli army was ready to accept a cease fire it was a defeat at that moment a terrible defeat and we were ready to accept that which shows that if we'd given up hope of winning the war. seduced by success sadat now refused the

british offer. he would only accept a ceasefire he said if israel withdrew from the whole of sinai things are going very well so for sadat he didn't want to stop the war something dramatic had to be done to persuade him to to agree to a cease fire may be able to get him to request a cease fire and. the only thing that. work was crossing of the canal that might scare them enough. but the egyptians alive to the possibility had held two on the divisions with over two hundred tanks each and a second line of defense west of the canal. it was a problem of which israeli chief of staff general divied early as it was well aware . before crossing the canal he wanted to draw those two arm of the business to the israeli side for two

reasons one not to have to cross while those to the business are waiting for him on the back of the canal when you're very vulnerable number two to have them is really so i worry can meet them on israel's terms. generally as it was sure that a second phase of the egyptian attack would begin on october the night with those two armored divisions crossing the canal to advance in sinai strategic passes some forty kilometers to the east. but the egyptian plan was to stay put. yet forty eight hours later president sadat gave a new and surprising order to his woman ista general smiled. they were to go ahead with just the second phase the advance that it had been waiting for you. on october eleventh. came to me and said

we want to advance to the past as i told him it was not possible for many reasons and one can actually get it to. get moshe he came again on the twelfth and said we want to go ahead with the advance to take the pressure off syria i told him we can take the pressure off syria the enemy air force is capable of holding any front west then he said with a get. well again on the wealthy for the third time he said no this is a political decision and it has to be implemented c.s.e. or i with their fees. after a long debate with shadley general smile issued orders to the commanders of egypt second and third field to begin the advance east. yeah there was almost immediately both of them called me and said we can carry out this world as the minister sent us that's what i was told by saddam i'm moving and i've been when i

was alone and sad i won't even said he's ready to hand in his resignation. that night the two commanders was summoned to center ten the egyptian armed forces command center in cairo. heads up watch right till midnight it is made was just like a broken record this is a political decision and it has to be implemented if you don't it's tantamount to mutiny so all we could manage to do was to postpone the start of the attack until the fourteenth we delayed for twenty four hours. ironically at almost exactly the same time egyptian commanders were arguing over an attack from west to east the israelis were locked in their own debate about an attempted crossing and the other direction. attending the stormy meeting in goldeneye years. office was seasoned near the head of the israeli intelligence must

sat. reading was go and tell it were with the. inner cabinet and the general staff. there in the middle of the discussions someone entered and whispered into it to some years here and he excused himself went out. as a man returned with astonishing information from an impeccable source a spy operating at the heart of affairs and kyra. the egyptians were on the point to moving their armored divisions across the canal. next day thirteenth of october confirmation arrived in israel. an american spy plane as saw seventy one black but at photograph the suez canal front with high resolution cameras. recognizance pictures showed the west bank was suddenly empty of egyptian tanks. the egyptians were committing their biggest mistake

of the wall. the israelis would do nothing to stop them. over he will all be the commander of the twenty first armored division told me i was surprised because while we were crossing from west to east i expected to be hit by the israeli air force but nothing happened not a single tank was hit and the crossing from west to east they just let us in. with a little bit of trouble. the egyptian plan was to make for some thrusts towards the sinai strategic passes and crossroads. three of the assaults would be made by ahmed brigades. the central push would be by a full division the twenty first ahmed. at six

thirty in the morning of the fourteenth of october the egyptian army moved east. of the one who gave where there are spoke to those that like a blood thinner than the regular orders of it for about. suddenly out of a rupture of our egyptian tires. the israelis were waiting for the tank assault in pre-prepared positions on the ridges east of the egyptian bridgeheads. the tanks came up and boom boom boom boom. and the first few minutes of the battle the gypsum twenty first armored division suffered significant casualties. and the session. of the video of the war one of the armored brigade commanders was martyred cause i know it so you. also his chief of staff was injured and the commander of their total brigade was martyred. there was

a lot of confusion at the front. that's a world. with its awful lot so assault we definitely succeeded in stopping dozens if not hundreds of egyptian tanks and blowing them up with not many casualties on our side during the action. before the course lot by midday on the fourteenth of october two hundred fifty tanks had been lost. the egyptian general command ordered all advancing forces to retreat westwards to the bridge heads. there at the house it was an attempt to relieve the pressure on the syrian front but it didn't do that how could we do that the distance between us and them is five hundred kilometers how could we relieve the pressure. in fact by the time the egyptians launched their attack the syrian front had already been stabilized. israelis had been forced to halt their

advance by the arrival of iraqi troops. begin very very in their home after. they arrived and surprised our forces when they attacked. we had put out an alert that the iraqi forces are moving towards the goal line but we couldn't tell them the precise location. so that came as a surprise. they tried to place part of the blame on us but what could be done. because over. iraq a third army division had moved swiftly from its bases around baghdad towards the golan a distance of over a thousand kilometers. levels than. we arrived that night and the outskirts of damascus it was guarded by syrian civilians the things they said to

was that night the eleventh of october shocked us are you iraqis yes we are iraqis for god's sake save our own. we thought it was a total victory that was a huge shock we started to realize that the situation had completely changed. into sot heavy or sudden also their area. despite their fatigue the iraqi forces were rushed to the front to reinforce syrian troops retreating before the advancing israelis. shorter so i we had penetrated deep into syrian territory i climbed a couple of observation towers i saw the air was full of dust and i assumed it was one of our forces on the move the division commander called me in and told me that a very large force was moving towards us and that it was very close something like a thousand meters away till a friend. of you heard them open. and that situation that was

a strategic victory on the syrian front the timing was perfect if it happened come just twenty four hours later it would have been much tougher and the israeli forces would have reached the gates of damascus or less well the bush. five squadrons of the iraqi air force. some sixty at craft were flown to syria to make up for losses sustained by the syrian air force so wolfish you can see some maturity in the iraqi prison sort of the syrian pilots up tied for the bottom even the most his didn't know how compilers from iraq are up for the fight why the syrians are reluctant to leave babies so it turned into a competition to carry out their missions and he did watch what he said. with the arrival of the participation of iraqi forces in the war the jordanian army

was now straining at the leash. have that have. that feel it was very embarrassing for us i mean it embarrass them making the same a lot because there were two arab countries who had territory occupied in one nine hundred sixty seven and jordan was a third arab country whose territory ha been occupied in one nine hundred sixty seven but those two other countries are fighting to regain what they lost while you're not with i remember i attended one of the meetings and held with the military and i saw how much pressure they put on him to go to the war. but it doesn't give it the jordanian forces enter the city. and be in. thrall just to be. at the iraqis and jordanians were not the fust to arrive.

five months before the outbreak of the war on the second of morocco had sent to brigade to support the syrian front the moroccan brigade was given the name. to do that when i saw that with. vax pression to read them means home welcome pain and that. the americans were given the task of guarding the. east and foothills of mount hermon. limited your bullshit. more expeditionary forces would soon arrive from other arab countries. with the loot but on the syrian front we first faced the moroccan brigade later the iraqis came and we fought them too. then later the jordanians came along after that the saudis so we found four armies there we had to fight.

the israelis had suffered heavy losses but they had also achieved significant gains in the last four days. they had advanced to within thirty five kilometers of damascus and occupied new territories to bring to the bargaining table after the war. now their initial goals in the north achieved the israelis were about to turn their attention south to the egyptians. planned to cross the suez canal had been finalized and given the name stout hearted men. can do testimonies from the binny's women who are staying single longer.

what's causing this cultural shift in a society already be set by religious and social tensions. and are there implications for the arab world as a whole. single by choice on al-jazeera. you're watching al-jazeera i'm still robin in doha these are all top news stories there's growing concern over whether u.s. authorities have the proper records to reunite many of the migrant children separated from their parents at the u.s. mexican border in recent weeks president trump out of a stance for his no tolerance immigration policy holding a news conference with victims of crimes committed by like words these are the stories that democrats and people that are weak on immigration they don't want to

discuss that don't want to hear they don't want to see they don't want to talk about. no major networks and cameras to their homes or display the images of their incredible loved ones across the nightly news they don't do that. they don't talk about the death and destruction caused by people that shouldn't be here hundreds of civilians in yemen are fleeing the port city of data u.s. officials urge the saudi led coalition to halt its bombing campaign on the strategically important site that they're calling on the coalition to allow the u.n. to manage the port instead there are reports that the rebels say they may be willing to accept the deal. police in india are questioning several suspects after the gang rape of five female charity workers in a remote region in the east of the country that would be that were abducted while before we could play highlighting human trafficking before being raped at gunpoint the attackers filmed the assault and try to use the video to blackmail the victims

. the united nations report says the rule of law in venezuela is now virtually absent with the government linked to more than five hundred killings over a two year period the report says extra judicial killings are being carried out between puti. and the humanitarian situation in gaza was a key discussion point for top u.s. advisers to who met the israeli prime minister on friday and in debt and yahoo spoke with trump's son in law and senior adviser jared cushion who should not meet palestinian leaders who cut off communication with the u.s. in december. the u.s. has indefinitely suspended several military training exercises with south korea the announcement comes just weeks after trump and the north korean leader kim jong un met at a summit in singapore tried promise to tone down milledge a trainings in south korea in return for the north taking steps towards denuclearize station those were the news headlines are back with the news hour in thirty minutes to stay with us here on out is there.

during the war in october nine hundred seventy three ariel sharon was the general in command of the hundred forty third reserve army division one of three facing the egyptians in the suez front. a controversial personality sharon had already developed a plan to deal with any egyptian attack during his three and a half years as commander of the southern front an assignment that had ended just three months earlier. so then i asked him what will happen only if. any. were this war is going to end. where violence there on the other side of the come out of. that's the only place where it can be terminated. this is the first time i hear it's we are going to cause the source

that. was around seven thirty of top of the six you know the pool. in his kitchen in the ship. on the night of october the ninth the fourth day of the war sharon sent his reconnaissance battalion west towards the canal. surprisingly no egyptian forces intercepted them and they quickly reached the shores of the bitter lake where the waterway is up to five kilometers wide. turning north the israelis and to to abandon foods of the bar-lev line like a can and maps meant. the battalion had stumbled on a forty kilometer wide undefended gap between the gyptian second and third armies. sharon was electrified and radioed headquarters for permission to implement his

strategy. when sharon tells them. we have to cross the come up we have to arrive in their rear. they telling we cannot afford to do what you are suggesting because you are the only division which we got in that. you are the only one. between the enemy and. what's more on october the ninth there was still two egyptian army divisions on the western side of the canal ready to counter any israeli crossing. sharon's plan was placed on hold. until five days later when those two divisions suddenly crossed the canal and began their abortive advance deep into sinai. now the israeli plan could be activated the time had come to stout hearted man.

but to pull it off the israelis would need to transport a curious mix of equipment to the waterline. they picked up in europe. second to her khartoum bridge the year before a war surplus and it also picked up floating wraps mechanize raf's which carry a tank but third and most important was an actual bridge specially built in israel this was how the main forces would cross the canal the idea of the bridge. roller bridge they call it it was. a bridge that was built in tire it was two hundred meters long metal bridge with metal rollers are growers but the rulers were thrilled with the substance that floated.

hole it to the canal with turks where you reach the edge of the parks in the back of course you're going to order and you have already made. but getting the four hundred ton bridge to the water's edge a twenty five kilometer journey has to prove harder than expected. and before the war the israelis had cut a dirt track specially designed for moving the bridge to a pre-prepared crossing point but now that track was an egyptian hands. a strong defensive position the southern flank of the second egyptian army stood in the way of any israeli advance. the battle to open the road to the canal would be called the battle of chinese farm. like farms on the eastern bank of the canal today the area was an egyptian agricultural

development on which work had begun in the early one nine hundred sixty s. with the help of japanese experts. occupied during the six day war the israelis had mistaken the japanese writing on irrigation equipment for chinese. the farm had now been recaptured by the egyptians the sixteenth division dug into dry ditches now serving as trenches. had to engage the second army. so that the bridges could reach the canal and the tanks could cross all the bridges. and dusk on the fifteenth of october. the israeli tanks started their assault on the chinese form. but the egyptians would counter the attack using their new highly effective weapon anti tank guided missiles. the use

of the sea kashif. i remember the conversation between opera gate commander. and division commander ariel sharon and he called to view raviv two because it was the second of his three brigades and he said to this is forty forty is the division commander the attack is looking good. and to be a raviv who had a deeper meaning voice said forty two here it's our tanks that are over. wash our owns division was taking heavy casualties and the chinese form a seven hundred fifty strong israeli paratroops force was advancing towards the canal across the genes. by midnight they had reached the crossing point.

her troop. reached we can all laugh tracks. and carrying with them after rocks or rubber boots. and they crossed uncertain of what they would find on the other side and the first. car bomb gave us another back. yo clear and they didn't go in there they stablished in britain so there was no one is really a presence on the western bank. but despite the desperate efforts of the israelis the road to the canal remained closed find entire egyptian infantry brigade. but there was one ray of light for the israelis and mechanized rovs could move independently across open terrain. and by six thirty on the morning of the

sixteenth of october fifteen rovs had reached the canal and began ferrying tanks to the west. just when we arrived there and it's quiet. and we have there we have there on the come out sharon sense between twelve to twenty thanks across the cannot and what happens is exactly what he said and it's in these their way their gypsies don't know what happens to them for twenty four hours that arrival in their rear of the enemy was exactly what sharon was aiming at and the decisive phase of the war is closing. these really canal crossing went almost unnoticed by the egyptians. and later that same morning in cairo it seemed the head of state was totally unaware of what was going on at the

front. and his first public appearance since the start of the war sadat led a victory parade through the streets towards parliament. he was accompanied by a woman mr general mattis my. commute . and arrows and speech sadat set out his conditions for ceasefire a total israeli withdrawal from sinai.

later that day in jerusalem called the maid made her own speech she decided to share the good news with the israeli knesset. for fifteen this afternoon the israeli population were told for the first time that their troops were on the west bank of the suez canal. what to mrs murray is said came as a surprise not just to the israeli people but also to the egyptian military. israeli paratroopers and tanks had formed a limited bridge had on the western side of the canal in an area called. me but egyptian report. it's about these really crossing a confusing and underestimated the scale of the problem. there was a problem with the reconnaissance and most or all of the reconnaissance units were

on the eastern side of the there was no reconnaissance in the west to provide information and that's why when i asked for information about the west no one knew anything much. it was only when the israeli forces in the west went on the offensive that the gyptian fast crossed the extent of the problem. that the enemy was already in their backyards. one of them at least the first cross received. orders. i want to talk to you. the voice as that of the air force commander general. you have a map. you see the flowers on the those are. better. please destroy them out. located on the western side of the canal the

egyptian surface to air missiles and cause the israeli afros heavy losses in the first days of the war. now reachable by israeli tanks it was payback time for the egyptian and defense. but despite the israeli success in destroying the somme batteries other aspects of stout hearted man were not going so well. alas i shall get. ariel sharon received in order not to activate his forces in the west of the canal because the concern was that if they were unable to establish a real bridge a pontoon or roller it would be impossible to establish a logistics route to evacuate casualties send supplies send forces and then they would even consider canceling the whole operation of. the israelis.