[2] Despite Israel's decisive victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, there were no diplomatic efforts in subsequent years to resolve the issues at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

On March 8 Nasser proclaimed the official launch of the War of Attrition, characterized by large scale shelling along the Canal, accompanied by pin-point sniping and commando assaults.

[4] The Egyptian Army, superior in both manpower and artillery to the Israel Defense Forces, was better able to sustain a lengthy and costly static war.

Israel, therefore, sought a demonstration of its aerial superiority to deter Egypt from a continuation of the war,[4] and in early July 1969 the Israeli Air Force was instructed to prepare a large scale assault on Egyptian positions on the western bank of the canal.

The resulting plan, codenamed operation "Boxer 1" envisioned a gradual attack beginning at the northern tip of the Canal, where defences were relatively weak, and rolling southwards.

[6][7] "Boxer 1" commenced at 14:00 pm on Sunday, July 20, 1969, with a strike by a pair of 117 Squadron Mirages against an SA-2 battery west of Port Said.

Israeli Mirages were once again directed towards the attacking aircraft and managed to down three: a Su-7 shared by Shmuel Gordon and Michael Zuk, another Su-7 shot down by Ran Goren, and a MiG-21 brought down by a Shafrir 2 missile fired by Shlomo Nevot.

Having already lost face to Israeli air power during the 1967 war, the fighting of July 1969 was unlikely to cause a reversal of Egyptian intentions, and instead only served to escalate existing tensions along the frontier.