Operation Entebbe, actually called Operation Thunderball/Thunderbolt (and afterwards renamed Operation Jonathan after the raid commander, Col. Jonathan "Yoni" Netanyahu, who died in it) took place on the night of July 3 and early morning of July 4, 1976.
Seven days before, Air France Flight 193, having taken off from Athens, Greece with destination Paris, France was hijacked, diverted to Benghazi, Libya airport and eventually forced to land at Entebbe, Uganda airport.
The hijackers were 8 PLO and 2 Baader-Meinhof Gang members. They were apparently supported by the Ugandan regime of pro-Palestine Idi Amin.
The passengers were held hostage in the Old Terminal's transit hall. The terrorists later released a large number of them, keeping only Israelis and Jews, which they threatened with death in case the Israeli government would not comply with their captors' demand to release Palestinian prisoners.
After days of collecting intelligence and careful planning, four Hercules transport aircraft flew down and night-landed without any aid from the ground at Entebbe airport to free the remaining hostages. They were followed by an air force jet with medical facilities flying into Nairobi, Kenya airport.
Over a hundred IDF troops including members of the elite Sayeret Matkal team arrived to conduct the assault; some Mossad troops might have taken part in the assault as well.
They landed an hour before midnight, with cargo bay doors already open. A black Mercedes with accompanying jeeps were brought along to avoid suspicion while the Israeli troops drove from the landed plane to the terminal building: this would look like a company of Idi Amin or another high official with escort.
The raid lasted only about three minutes and six terrorists were killed. One hostage was killed when he leaped at the Israeli forces. Of the 103 hostages, three died. It is speculated that Israeli forces captured some of the terrorists but there is no confirmation of that. Ugandan forces also opened fire on Israeli troops killing Col. Netanyahu. 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed during the raid and the Ugandan fighter planes sitting on the ramp were put into non-flying condition. The rescued hostages were flown out shortly after the fighting via Nairobi to Israel.
There was one other fatality: Dora Bloch, a 75-year-old hostage, was recovering from a choking episode in a Kampala hospital when the Israelis struck. In April, 1987, Henry Kyemba, who was Uganda's Health Minister at the time of Entebbe, told Uganda's Human Rights Commission that Dora Bloch had been dragged from her hospital bed and murdered by two army officers on the orders of Amin. Bloch's remains were recovered in 1979 following the Tanzanian-Ugandan War which had resulted in the end of Amin's rule of Uganda.
TV Dramatization
The incident was the subject of at least two films, both with an international cast of well-known actors:
• Victory At Entebbe (1976)
with Richard Dreyfuss, Anthony Hopkins, Burt Lancaster, Elizabeth Taylor.
Director: Marvin J. Chomsky
• Raid On Entebbe (1977)
with Peter Finch, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Yaphet Kotto.
Director: Irvin Kershner
External Links
• Entebbe Diary
(The official, detailed account by the Israeli Defence Forces)
Further Reading
• Stevenson, William (1976):
Ninety Minutes at Entebbe.
Bantam Books. ISBN 0553104829
• Hastings, Max (1979):
Yoni, Hero of Entebbe.
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publ. ISBN 0385271271
• Netanyahu, Jonathan / Netanyahu, Benjamin / Netanyahu, Iddo (1998):
Self-Portrait of a Hero: From the Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu, 1963-1976.
Warner Books. ISBN 0446674613
• Netanyahu, Jonathan (2001):
The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu.
Gefen Books. ISBN 9652292672
• Netanyahu, Iddo (2001):
Yoni's Last Battle: The Rescue at Entebbe, 1976.
Gefen Books. ISBN 9652292834
• Netanyahu, Iddo (2003):
Entebbe: A Defining Moment in the War on Terrorism: The Jonathan Netanyahu Story.
New Leaf Press. ISBN 0892215534