Operation Spark was a deception operation led by Syria and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, aimed towards deceiving Israel of its intention to invade the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

and the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is ...

respectively, in 1973.Dunstan 2003, p. 7. The operation succeeded in that Israeli intelligence was not, as a whole, able to inform a nationwide alert that war was imminent and that mobilisation should proceed apace; the established 48-hour warning had proved advantageous to Israel in previous wars, most notably the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

. However, a number of Israeli generals, including General

David Elazar David "Dado" Elazar ( he, דוד אלעזר; 27 August 1925 – 15 April 1976) was the ninth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), serving in that capacity from 1972 to 1974. He was forced to resign in the aftermath of the Yom Kip ...

, caught on to the fact that the Syrians and the Egyptians were mobilising their forces behind the ceasefire lines, preparing for offensive actions. Importantly, and arguably the fact that saved the Golan Heights from Syrian reconquest, was the ordering of the 7th Armoured Brigade to the area, even though this was a blatant disregard of the spirit of the Israeli High Command's current directives. Nevertheless, when war started, clearly Israel as a whole was surprised. Therefore, Operation Spark was a success, a preamble to Syrian and Egyptian initial success in the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...

. However, as said, the initiative of some Israeli generals meant that some preparation was in place to try and resist the Arab advance.

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References

External links

* Yom Kippur War Deception operations {{syria-hist-stub