Category: 1967

Were They Collected As Trophies From Murdered POWs ??

Zeinobia 2 Comments

Nobody saw this coming nor expected something similar like this to happen , as a son of a late Israeli paratrooper decided to return back the ID and letters his dad collected from the dead Egyptian soldiers and officers in  the six days war to the families of those soldiers and officers. He decided to give them back to Yedoit Ahronot to help him in locating the relatives and relatives of these soldiers and officers “where is our embassy??”   Theses families and relatives  have been awaiting for 42 years to know anything about their men who went to that war and never came back.These souvenirs were telling the story from the other side according to the newspaper which gave me the impression that they do not consider us as humans who have a life too !!!?

The souvenirs include IDs,photos,permissions, letters and diaries of soldiers and officers on the front you can see them below here

Here are the names of these late officers and soldiers God bless their souls mentioned in the report :

  1. Ali Hassan Ali , a solider from Cairo who was born in 1905 and used to work as a conductor
  2. Fathi Abdel Khalek Shahin from Sharkia , who owned a pastry shop and was a musician at the same time ; Mr.Shahin was ready to sing in weddings and parties.
  3. Hassan Salim Agowa , a solider who took a leave from the base from 30/4/1967 to 1/5/1967 ; a very short leave indeed
  4. EAF officer Mohamed Ibrahim who took a leave and returned back to his fate.
  5. Soldier Mahmoud Ibrahim , No. 904841 in in unit 451031 who used to write his memories where he said that his unit captured 8 IDF soldiers
  6. Galal Said Abdel Hamid from Ismailia who lived at no.5 at the Plage street
  7. Mahmoud Abed

Yedoit Ahronot published this as a special report and I do not know if they expect  the level of controversy they will create back in Egypt as this report , these souvenirs will open the door of the Egyptian POWs files again and thank God they will do it.

Some people including me believe that these souvenirs were taken from Egyptian murdered POWs and this is because some reasons :

1- The newspaper for some unknown reason did not identify the name of the Israeli paratrooper nor his son , only “Y” ; why are they afraid from mentioning his full name ?? Already I believe we should thank the son of Mr. “Y” for his desire to return those stuff to where they do really belong !!??

The fact that they hid his name and the name of his family not to mention the detail of his father’s military background as which battalion he used to be at .. etc except that he is a paratroop raises many questions.

2- The father wanted to return these stuff to Egypt for decades but he was afraid and I only wonder the reason behind; why he was afraid from returning back these stuff to the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv ; was he afraid from accountability and that our diplomats may ask questions on how he got them other than he took from dead Egyptians.

3- Some people believe that Mr. Y, the father was a member in Shaked battalion but I doubt it because Shaked was not the only battalion that killed our POWs. Also if he were from Shaked battalion I would bet that these souvenirs would have been destroyed by now to protect Ben Elizer from any accountability.

4-The father said nothing to his son about the circumstance of the fights

The son of that paratrooper decided to return back these Egyptian collectibles  after the death of his father by a year and half.

I believe the least thing our embassy in Tel Aviv must do is to restore these items immediately and return back to rightful owners, we need to have them back. I do not even dare to ask them to investigate who that Mr. Y was !!

P.S Al Shorouk Newspaper is calling the families of these men in the photos to contact the newspaper and share their stories.

They Were Not Murdered in Action But They Were Murdered in Capture

Zeinobia 2 Comments

Many people in the world think that our soldiers and officers had been murdered in action during the six days war just like an army during a war , especially a defeated army , there is no argue in this but unfortunately many of our soldiers and officers had not be murdered in action but rather murdered in capture in the six days war.

First of all you must know that in 1967 the Egyptian army had just come out from the Yemen war exhausted , there was new recruitment process in the army , many young men from all around the country were dispatched to the front even without training or even receiving their uniforms.When the war broke and we seemed on the verge on a terrible defeat ,

inexperienced minister of war then Abdel Hakim Amar issued a withdrawal order that has been considered one of the most worst withdrawal ever issued in the modern military history. Without going in to too much details the withdrawal order was simply getting away from Sinai as soon as possible with no organization or defense plan at all. The sudden withdrawal plan by the way is from the X-Files in this war, there is no justification for why the Egyptian forces had to leave the peninsula without a single real fight despite they were capable of doing it and the officers were willing to do it.The forces had to leave everything behind them even weapons to be swift and move as quickly as they could to the second bank. Of course we are talking about Sinai in June , a hell in the desert especially with water and food running out.  It was a tough experience of being lost and chased especially there was no direction home in that vast desert.

In this unorganized withdrawal the IDF found a golden opportunity to destroy the Egyptian totally through hunting down the tired soldiers and officers who thought that it would not be the end of the world if they were captured but unfortunately it was for them. Many Egyptians who surrendered to the IDF in their way to Suez Canal were shot either in their place or in mess graves they were forced to dig  by their own hands according to eye witnesses from locals and survivors who managed to escape this hell. The Egyptian soldiers and officers thought that they would be treated like any POW around the world according to the Geneva conventions but of course they were mistaken.The policy of the IDF , in fact the Israeli regime then was to send a powerful message to Egypt that it was over , no more Egyptian army.

The people of Al Arish still remember very well in vivid details how the city from North to South drunk from the Egyptian blood of Egyptian soldiers and officers who were murdered while raising their hands up. The city is full of mess graves which the locals made for our men who were left to decay for days. This was just the tip of the ice-berg , you should only hear from the very few who were transferred to Atilt prison what hell really meant and how it was an ugly copy from the Nazi concentration camps to know what does it mean to be murdered in capture.

I do not know how we can’t considered pouring napalm over the walking withdrawn troops from flying jets as war crime !!??

I do not know how we can’t considered shooting in an execution style the withdrawn and surrendered troops as war crime !!??

What happened in the six days war from war crimes against the Egyptian army is an outrageous crime against humanity and it kills me that our regime pretends as if it never happened despite all the evidences that could send help of the Israeli commanders and officers  in 1967 behind bars for war crimes !!??

FYI the Egyptians who were considered missing in action in the six days war were more than in any other war we fought in the 20th century. Up till now there are thousands of Egyptian families who do not what exactly happened to that young uncle in the black and white photo hanging on the wall of their granny’s chamber except that he was in Sinai during the six days war and that he will never come back again !!

Never Seen Before Photos

Zeinobia 2 Comments

During the times of wars it is a normal thing that the news and the photos coming from the war zone is filtered , media is very powerful double edged weapon in time of war that can affect the people’s spirit whether positively or negatively , if you search in our modern history you will find out that during the times of war even the biggest democracies in the world had to censor and filter the news and photos coming from the war zone especially those issued by the enemy.

For that particular reason I am not surprised or shocked that the Nasser regime did not publish the photos the Israelis released to the wire services from humiliating shots to our Egyptian POWs during the captivity.There are many photos in this website Egyptians have not seen for decades , they only heard about their details and circumstance from the 1967 veterans who survived that shocking defeat , for sure the veterans accounts were even much horrible than those photos.

I have never stopped to search for new material from photos and accounts to add to the website and fortunately through our Egyptian groups in facebook I found couple of photos that led to huge patch of photos that have never been published to public in Egypt. I found the photos in Magnum Photo agency . Most of these photos were taken by Israeli photographers who accompanied the IDF during the war like for instance Micha Bar Am

Micha Bar Am on the Suez Canal in 1967
Micha Bar Am on the Suez Canal in 1967

The photos I found are very sad and can be provocative to any Egyptian , you do not have to live during that era to feel how sad to see such moments , seriously I understand why the Egyptian regime then had decided not to publish these photos. (( Of course I am totally against the decision of the regime then to lie on the public in the first hours of the defeat))

I added the new photos to the photos section in 1967 , already I will show some of them below here too

I must warn the Egyptian visitors that some of the shots are really shocking

Left on the beach
The remaings of an Egyptian officer
The underwear parade
The underwear parade
Passing By
Passing by
Shall I guess their fate ??
Blindfolded POWs
Hands up
Hands Up

This was just the tip of the ice-berg, already from the photos you find violations to international laws and human rights treaties and agreements.

In 1967 just like Micha Bar Am was in the Israeli side we had our legendary Akhbar Al Youm Photographer Ahmed Youssef  was in the Egyptian side ,he shot two set of films while the withdrawal from Gaza and Al Arish yet he hided his camera bag well before his capture in the desert by the IDF , he swore to my grandfather who was his friend and co-journalist in Akher Saa that he hided them well in some kind of boxes that would preserve them from the desert and time. The man till his death wanted so much to get back and retrieve those films because what he shot was a real evidence of war crimes against Egyptian POWs. I wish one day seriously that someone would find Ahmed Youssef’s camera.

BY the way I was very careful in my search for these lost photos because I found some photos that did not belong to the six days war and belong to other wars and other countries ; this was very sad because we do not need this.

Also if you want to save the photos or post them in your website , you are most welcome but please mention the Egyptianpows.net

The world should know what happened back then , we can get back the rights of these men if we want by law.

Syrian POWs in 1967

Zeinobia 4 Comments

These are two photos I found while my search for Egyptian POWs photos ,these photos were for Syrian POWs heading back to Damascus after spending some time in infamous Atlit prison. The Syrian POWs were too few compared to the Egyptian POWs. They also left the POWs camp before the Egyptian POWs. The Syrian POWs were few because Golan was technically empty from the Syrian army by the 6th of June 1067 thanks to the withdrawal announcement issued by Hafiz Al-Assad and what preceded it from strange decision taken by Al-Assad and his men in Golan. Already the losses of the Syrian army official in 1967 war were 120 officers and soldiers !!!!!!!!

Can please someone tell me what that “W” written on their back meant or referred to ??

Syrian POWs heading back to Syria
Heading back from Atilt camp
Syrian POWs.1
Syrian POWs Marked With "W"

To read more about the Golan invasion circumstance ,please read the following posts :

Al Jazeera English – Focus – Egypt Veteran’s Fight For Justice

Zeinobia 1 Comment

Al-Jazeera international report about the story of  two 1967 war veteran and what they suffered from mistreatment against all international and ethic laws in Atlit prison

Please read the testimony of Amin Mohamed Darwish

Al Jazeera English – Focus – Egypt Veteran’s Fight For Justice

Here is another testimony for an old Palestinian man Fares Salih ,it includes what happened in Gaza , it is very interesting concerning the looting and killing the Israeli soldiers and officers did in Gaza