The Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal on October 6 and destroyed the Israeli defenses and forts on the other side of the canal. Israel tried for the next few days to defeat the Egyptians and push them back behind the canal. However the Israelis could not push them back. The United States of America started sending ammunition and weapons to Israel using airplanes to help the Israeli army win the war in Operation Nickel Grass. Syria soon pleaded Egypt to attack Israel to lessen the pressure on it. On October 14, Egypt attacked again, trying to advance even more into the Sinai. Israel defeated the attack, and the Egyptians lost about 250 tanks. After this, the Israelis attacked again. After heavy fighting, they crossed the canal at its center, between two Egyptian armies. They advanced north and south. They kept moving south until the reached the city of Suez, and they trapped a large Egyptian force on the eastern side of the canal, in the Sinai. The Israelis tried to capture Suez, but they were defeated. They also failed to advance north. They reached an area 101 kilometers from Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
On October 15, took place, it is regarded as one of the deadliest and longest tank battles since World War II, After the battle had ended, Dayan would recount that: "I am no novice at war or battle scenes, but I have never seen such a sight, not in reality, or in paintings, or in the worst war movies. Here was a vast field of slaughter stretching as far as the eye could see." Sharon would also provide his own poignant account of the aftermath: "It was as if a hand-to-hand battle of armor had taken place... Coming close you could see the Egyptian and Jewish dead lying side-by-side, soldiers who had jumped from their burning tanks and died together. Soldiers who never surrendered. No picture could capture the horror of the scene, none could encompass what had happened there."
The losses suffered by both the Egyptians and the Israelis in the battle were severe. Israeli units suffered heavy casualties in men and equipment; Reshef's armored losses during the first night of the battle alone were comparable to Egyptian armored losses on the disastrous October 14 offensive. For their part, the numbers of Egyptian armored forces within 16th Division's bridgehead severely dwindled. As of 18 October the 21st Armored Division had no more than 40 tanks remaining of an original 136 tanks available at the start of the battle (not counting 21 tanks received as reinforcements), while the 16th Infantry Division had just 20 tanks remaining in its organic tank battalion. This attrition served Egypt's war strategy of inflicting maximum casualties on the Israelis, even though, from another perspective, the initiative had passed to the Israelis during the battle. It was a Military defeat for Egypt and Moral victory for Egypt, on the Israeli side it was a Military victory but a severe Moral defeat and humiliation.
The United Nations passed a resolution in the security council that asked all the countries to bring a temporary stop to the war (called a 'ceasefire'). The Arab countries and Israel agreed. However the ceasefire failed when the Israeli army advanced south to reach Suez. After this, the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, said to the US president that if the US did not send troops that he would send Soviet troops to the area. This was believed to be a threat and the United States put their military on full nuclear alert. Because of this tension between the United States and the Soviets, Israel agreed to a ceasefire, and the war ended. It was the closest the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, had been to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s.
The war ended on October 26, 1973. After the war, Egypt and Israel negotiated. They reached an agreement to separate their forces. The agreement led to Israel retreating behind the Suez Canal. The Egyptian forces stayed in the Sinai near the canal and did not retreat from the places they captured. There was a large distance between Egyptian and Israeli forces in the Sinai as part of the agreement.
Israel also held negotiations with Syria and agreed to withdraw from the places the captured in Syria, but the negotiations failed and Israel stayed in the Golan Heights. Egypt and Israel kept their negotiations, and in 1979 they signed the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. The treaty brought peace between Israel and Egypt, Gradual retreat of Israeli forces took place and all Sinai peninsula returned to Egyptian hands in 1982. The treaty still holds to this day. No real military victory was ever won; it was a military "stalemate".
The peace treaty was shocking to the Arab world and Egypt was kicked from the Arab league, This led to the , The Libyan attack ultimately failed and Egypt was planning to march into the Libyan capital and depose Libyan dictator Gadhafi, the plan was ultimately scrapped due to intervention from the Arab league which resulted in a cease fire after 4 days of fighting, Egypt repelled all Libyan advances and ended the war in a victory for Egypt.
After the and the Islamist group planned the assassination of Egyptian leader in 1981 due to the recognition of Israel as a state. The assassination squad was led by Lieutenant after a approving the assassination had been obtained from . Islambouli was tried, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad in April 1982.
On 6 October 1981, Sadat was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Egypt's crossing of the Suez Canal. Islambouli emptied his assault rifle into Sadat's body while in the front of the grandstand, mortally wounding the President. In addition to Sadat, eleven others were killed, including the Cuban ambassador, an Omani general, a Coptic Orthodox bishop and Samir Helmy, the head of Egypt's Central Auditing Agency (CAA). Twenty-eight were wounded, including Vice President Hosni Mubarak, Irish Defence Minister James Tully, and four US military liaison officers.
However the war agreed to be a political victory for the Egyptians. Syrians on the other hand do not like to talk about the war as much of it was seen as a defeat rather than a victory or stalemate.
Though the war reinforced Israel's military deterrence, it had a stunning effect on the population in Israel. Following their victory in the Six-Day War, the Israeli military had become complacent. The shock and sudden reversals that occurred at the beginning of the war inflicted a terrible psychological blow to the Israelis, who had hitherto experienced no serious military challenges.
A protest against the Israeli government started four months after the war ended. It was led by Motti Ashkenazi, commander of Budapest, the northernmost of the Bar-Lev forts and the only one during the war not to be captured by the Egyptians. Anger against the Israeli government (and Dayan in particular) was high. Shimon Agranat, President of the Israeli Supreme Court, was asked to lead an inquiry, the Agranat Commission, into the events leading up to the war.
According to those who knew the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces the war deeply depressed Dayan. He went into political eclipse for a time. He later resigned in 1979 on October 21.