Israelis and Arab nations marked on Tuesday the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Six-Day War, a decisive Israeli military victory with an outcome that resonates to this day.

After its victory over combined Arab forces under Egyptian command, Israel more than tripled its land size, gaining control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights, as well as complete control over the coveted holy city of Jerusalem.

Israeli soldiers advance towards Egyptian positions in the Gaza Strip during the Six-Day War in June 1967. In the fighting, Israel seized the West Bank and part of Jerusalem from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
(Associated Press)

The lasting effects of the war and questions over the lands continue to affect daily life for Israelis and the Palestinians dealing with the occupation, as well as serve as a reminder of the humiliation Arab nations suffered on the battlefields.

The overwhelming Israeli victory established the country as a dominant military force in the region surrounded by enemies that had vowed to eliminate the Jewish state since it gained independence 19 years before.

Amid rising tensions in the months before the war, Egypt expelled UN ceasefire observers from the Sinai Peninsula and prevented Israeli ships from using the Straights of Tiran at the southern opening of the Gulf of Aqaba.

After weeks of mobilization by the Egyptian military and other Arab forces on all sides of Israel's borders, the Israelis launched a pre-emptive morning attack on June 5, 1967.

The air assault wiped out the majority of Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian air forces while their planes were still on the ground, giving Israel supremacy over the skies for the duration of the war.

'It was a national dream, but also a very personal dream.'—Moshe Amirav, former Israeli soldier

Israeli troops then pierced through Arab defences in the Sinai and Gaza, and pushed back attacks from Jordanian and Syrian forces far beyond its borders before all sides agreed to a ceasefire on June 10.

Israeli win remembered as disappointment

Capturing East Jerusalem was seen as the crowning achievement of the Israeli military, if not a moment of destiny for the Jewish state.

Brig.-Gen. Ariel Sharon, foreground left, and Israeli Minister Without Portfolio Menahem Begin, two future Israeli prime ministers, shown at the southern front of the Six-Day Wr in the Sinai Desert in this June 16, 1967, file photo.
(Associated Press)

Moshe Amirav, one of the first Israeli paratroopers to enter the Old City, told CBC News he felt at the time that it was a fulfilment of a dream.

"It was a national dream, but also a very personal dream," he said. "As a youngster, I was dreaming of the day that we would liberate Jerusalem and here I am, liberating Jerusalem."

Once the old city was captured, Amirav and his fellow soldiers flocked to the Western Wall, the last remaining piece of the old temple of Jerusalem and the holiest site in modern Judaism.

"People were crying," Amirav recalled. "It was not only me crying near the wall."

In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the Israeli victory is remembered as al Naqsa — "the disappointment" — which Palestinians mark with annual parades of mourning. 

During a televised speech Tuesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a warning to mark the anniversary, saying Palestinians are on the verge of a civil war and that the chaos is perhaps worse than it was living under Israeli military rule.

The violence and poverty engulfing Gaza and the West Bank in the last two decades and the swelling populations in Israeli settlements have prompted questions about what was sparked by the Six-Day War.

While some Israelis viewed the territorial gain as a gift from God, many now believe the unplanned capture of the territories and subsequent 40-year rule have proved impractical and costly for their country.

Jerusalem a tale of 2 solitudes

Forty years after Israel annexed east Jerusalem, observers say the city has grown, but as two separate worlds. East Jerusalem remains an enclave unto itself — poor, neglected and Arab.

Abdel Nasser Nashashibi's family has lived in his East Jerusalem home through Ottoman rule, the British Mandate, and now Israeli occupation.

The 87-year-old told CBC News that despite Israel's annexation, Jerusalem remains a city of two solitudes.

"The streets here are not the streets there. The lights here are not the lights there," Nashashibi said. "They don't admit that, but it's a fact."

Across the city, from his home in West Jerusalem, Amirav has watched as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drags on, with Jerusalem remaining at the heart of the conflict.

"[It's] definitely a microcosm of the big conflict because in Jerusalem, you see everything — ideology, the dreams, the disappointment," he said.

He said it was time to let the dream of a unified Jerusalem go and divide the city between Israelis and Palestinians. 

He proposed that some kind of international body would oversee the ever-contested Old City and its holy places.

"Like every old man, you have to compromise with life," he said. "You have to compromise in order to find a way to live with the Palestinians."