egyptian-controlled sinai. >> now, israel completely controlled the skies, and that rendered all the armies, army of syria, army of egypt, and even army of jordan very weakly defended. >> the goal was to occupy the sinai and destroy the egyptian army. >> as the israeli army started to advance toward gaza, their first encounter with egyptian forces was extremely bloody and israel lost several battalions. the casualties was extremely disheartening, and this could have fueled lots of acts of vengeance on the parts of israeli soldiers. >> but the israeli moving into sinai, they created what they called a box fire. basically soldiers standing on this side of the box, soldiers standing on this side of the box, and then shooting everybody that stands right in the middle of that box or in the way of that box. so they showed no mercy to the egyptian soldiers.