At 11:15 a.m. on June 5, 1967, Jordanian artillery launched a 6,000-shell barrage against Jewish Jerusalem, hitting the Knesset and the prime minister’s house as well as the Hadassah Hospital and the Church of Dormition on Mount Zion. Following Defense Minister Moshe Dayan’s orders, the Israelis responded only with small arms. At 11:30, Dayan ordered a strike against the Jordanian air force. Watching from the roof of his palace with his eldest son, the future King Abdullah II, Hussein saw his planes destroyed.
In Jerusalem, Israel offered a ceasefire but the Jordanians were not interested. The muezzin loudspeakers on the Dome of the Rock cried, “Take up your weapons and take back your country stolen by the Jews.”
Excerpted from Simon Sebag Montefiore's new book, the chapter: ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands’
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