January 18, 1974
Gens. David Elazar of Israel and Abdel Gani el-Gamasy of Egypt sign the U.S.-brokered Separation of Forces Agreement after the October 1973 war. Military officers worked out most of the details during the Kilometer 101 talks immediately after the war, which produced an interim pact, and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger used the Geneva peace conference in late December to finalize the deal under the noses of the Soviets, who co-sponsored the conference.
The agreement creates a U.N.-monitored buffer zone in the Sinai and calls for all Egyptian forces to deploy west of that zone and all Israeli forces, including those that ended the war west of the Suez Canal, to move east of that zone. Troops and armaments are limited in the areas adjacent to the buffer zone.
Both countries pledge to halt military and paramilitary activities against each other.
The agreement is not a final peace agreement, something still five years away, but “constitutes a first step toward a final, just and durable peace.” In coordination with signing the deal with Egypt, Israel also signs a memorandum of understanding with the United States. Crucially, the MOU marks the first time that Washington agrees to monitor and guarantee any Arab-Israeli deal, thus setting the precedent for the U.S. role from the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979 through the Abraham Accords of 2020 and the Gaza ceasefire of fall 2025.
