The Yom Kippur War, also called Ramadan War or October War, was fought from October 6, 1973 to October 26, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of several Arab states. The war which was the fourth Arab-Israeli War in the Middle East conflict is also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. The war began with a so-called surprise attack by Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur on October 6, 1973 on the Sinai and the Golan Heights which respectively had already been occupied and conquered by Israel during the Six-Day War. Strictly speaking Yom Kippur which, in 1973, coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is the holiest day in Judaism.
The conflict was basically characterized to have all those elements of a serious and absolutely severe international crisis. It ended with a confrontation between the United States of America and the Soviet Union – strictly speaking between two ‘countries’ that prove to be two nuclear superpowers.
Regarding more detailed information about the Yom Kippur War it has to be mentioned that during the first 24 to 48 hours the Egyptian and Syrian armed forces moved their troops forward, thereafter the whole course and process of the war was turned in favor of the Israelis who first had to mobilize their troops. After the second week of the war, the Syrians had been completely pushed away from the Golan Heights. In the Sinai, Israeli armed forces erupted between two Egyptian armies, crossed the Suez Canal, strictly speaking the old ceasefire line, and cut off an entire Egyptian army before the UN ceasefire became effective on October 24, 1973.
The Yom Kippur War had extensive and far-reaching consequences for many countries. The whole Arab world, which was humiliated because of the complete defeat of the Egyptian-Syrian-Jordanian alliance during the Six-Day War, was able to draw psychological benefits out of the initial successes of the war. This psychological confirmation represented a pre-condition for the peace negotiations that were to follow. The Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, which was realized five and a half years after the war, normalized the relations between Egypt and Israel. Strictly speaking it was the very first time that an Arab state recognized Israel.