Edited sentence: Although they suffered over 100 casualties, while Israel lost 28 soldiers, the battle was perceived as an Arab-Palestinian victory as Israel withdrew without achieving its goal—destruction of the Palestinian fedayeen base.In January 1968, Nasser commenced the War of Attrition against Israel, ordering his forces to begin harassing the Israelis east of the now-blockaded Suez Canal.Nasser immediately dispatched his trusted aide Heikal to Arafat to Cairo; he decided to cede his leadership of the conflict with Israel to Arafat.On the contrary, his traditional allies (Syria, Iraq, Algeria, and the PLO) opposed his recent moves and formed a "rejectionist front.Then in March, Fatah, a Palestinian paramilitary group, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat faced off with Israel in Jordan, in what became known as the Battle of Karameh.While his traditional Arab enemies (Saudi Arabia and Jordan) still conspired to reduce his prominence or remove him all together, Nasser maintained good relations with them following the Khartoum summit, partly because of financial dependence on the Persian Gulf States