The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab-Israeli War or Tripartite Aggression, began when Israel invaded Egypt, followed by the United Kingdom and France. Israel wanted to reopen the blocked sea passages between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas, the Straits of Tiran. Western powers wanted to regain control of the Suez Canal and remove the Egyptian president who had nationalised the Suez Canal Company. The conflict concluded with a military peacekeeping operation from the United Nations that would police the Egyptian-Israeli border and end the blockade of the Straits of Tiran.

The Suez Canal had been an important asset for Britain since World War II, as the primary source of oil in the Middle East. Britain had also retained military bases in Egypt along the canal. Egyptian authorities increasingly objected to British presence there, and in 1951 they broke the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 that stipulated Britain could have troops in the country until 1956. This led to demonstrations and attacks on British servicemen, and in January 1952, British troops stormed the Egyptian police barracks at Ismailia to suppress the disruption.

Egyptian demands to take control of the Suez Canal increased when the Egyptian ruler, King Farouk, was forced to abdicate in 1952, following a military coup by the Free Officers Movement, and the Revolutionary Command Council put pressure on taking control in the area away from Europeans.