The war began on October 6th, 1973 at 2 o'clock  p.m, on the Syrian and the Egyptian fronts simultaneously.

 

Of course this war came as a great surprise to Israel.

The achievements of the Arab countries at the start of this war were fantastic, and they occupied  most of  the Golan Heights within 24 hours. 

 

IDF forces were pushed back, withdrew and were destroyed.  Among many achievements was of course the capture of Mount Hermon.

 

It was a surprise battle, a counterattack. On the second, third and fourth days, our forces, two divisions, counter attacked in the north and gained control again on the Golan Heights.

 

In the northern Golan Heights, the 7th brigade fought against the Syrians for 4 days.

 

I was honored to fight in this battle.

 

We succeeded in holding them back until Tuesday at noon.

Actually, this determined that the Israeli border would not be moved back any further in this war

 

The war continued into Syria and we captured an enclave about 25 km from the Israeli border.

 

We stopped 35 km from Damascus.

 

For 18 days Israel fought on the Golan, and of  course the war ended then.  

        

Our forces remained in the enclave, threatening Damascus.

 

Lieutenant Col. Avigdor Kahalani,

77th regiment commander

Hero, of the Israel,

recounts the following

 

As we see here.

 

Khan Arnaba, is situated beyond the border.

The border is where it was during the Yom Kippur war.

If we go more to the left, we can see the ridges of Dahor Through, and the Hermon is in the background.

 

At  this point, exactly at this point, the Syrians crossed over.

They trampled the fence down and entered from the left.

We are now walking in the Syrians' footsteps, towards the Valley of Habaha.

 

See the minefield here?

 

The width of the minefield was 80m wide, and the canal, a canal against tanks, you can see the embankment, it is actually 80m  from this point. This canal was here at the time. And it actually directed all their movement through the canal. They put down a number of bridges and crossed over the bridges, they were later deployed in the valley.

 

If we look at the background, can you see that red mountain, the far one over there?

 

During the war, that was the Hermonit from the Syrian viewpoint. And we stood on the left  of the Hermonit facing south…I can see the Syrians tanks climbing to their positions and I watch them, knowing that at any moment, There would be dozens of tanks on top of our positions, and we didn't have any chance.

 

On Friday evening we received an order to move southward.

We left Amos Katz in Mizrat Bet G'an, and actually the army reserve forces and regular forces started to determine the boundaries of the enclave.

 

From the eastern part of the border of the enclave, our forces fired at the outskirts of Damascus.