Slightly more than a year into his job, Hod faced an enormous predicament. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had closed the Straits of Tiran, and Israel was facing the possibility of a three front war against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Hoping to retain the advantage of surprise, Israel launched Operation Focus, the opening airstrike in what would become known as the 1967 Six-Day War. Hod's strike, leaving only 12 planes to defend Israel, and aided with intelligence from Mossad and Aman, succeeded in destroying most of the Egyptian Air Forces. Later strikes annihilated Jordanian and Syrian Air Forces as well as part of Iraqi Air Force. This ensured Israeli air superiority for the rest of the war. In an interview years later, Hod described the 45 minutes it took the first wave of 183 aircraft to reach targets in Egypt as "the longest 45 minutes of my life." Hod also had to deal with the USS "Liberty" incident, in which Israeli aircraft attacked an American ship off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula, killing 34 servicemen.