United Nations Emergency Force

The United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was a military and peacekeeping operation established by the United Nations General Assembly to secure an end to the Suez Crisis of 1956 through the establishment of international peacekeepers on the border between Egypt and Israel. Approved by resolution 1001 (ES-I) of 7 November 1956, UNEF was developed in large measure as a result of efforts by UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and a proposal from Canadian Minister of External Affairs Lester B. Pearson, who would later win the Nobel Peace Prize for it. Although armed, UNEF soldiers were instructed to use their weapons only in self-defence and with maximum restraint.^[1] UNEF was deployed along Sinai and Gaza until May 1967, when Egypt requested UNEF to withdraw its forces.

The UN General Assembly later established a Second United Nations Emergency Force in 1973 in response to the Yom Kippur War.^[2]