This impatience on the part of the French troops was perhaps decisive in convincing the Egyptian commander to respect his obligations.

Egyptian commanders then called in artillery attacks on their own positions.

Hassan al-Roueini is the Egyptian military commander for the Cairo area.

However, Dye refused the appointment as he had no confidence in the Egyptian commander.

The Egyptian commander, however, said that the journey would need a large escort which he could not provide, so Sadleir had no choice but to continue.

Thus they were left unoccupied by the local Egyptian commander who chose not to extend his defenses southwards.

For the next 24 hours this remained the general impression among Egyptian commanders, actions henceforth were driven according to that impression.

A number of Egyptian commanders wanted to carry out a general war to regain at least a significant part of the Sinai.

It was not clear to Egyptian commanders however, whether the Israelis were aware of the incident.

The Egyptian commander was informed and the decision was taken to attack the unknown submarine.