Arab–Israeli war, known to the Arabs as the June War. The immediate causes of the war were the Egyptian request to the UN Emergency Force in Sinai to withdraw from the Israeli frontier, the increase of Egyptian forces in Sinai, and the closure of the Straits of Tiran (the Gulf of Aqaba) to Israeli shipping. An Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian military alliance was formed. The war was initiated by General Dayan as Israel’s Minister of Defence, with a pre-emptive air strike, which was followed by the occupation of Sinai, Old Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights (9–10 June). The Arab–Israeli conflict erupted again in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.