Operation Entebbe

Operation Entebbe was a rescue mission performed by Israel's elite Sayeret Matkal to free hostages at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda. It took place on the night of July 3 and early morning of July 4, 1976. It was actually called Operation Thunderbolt by the Israeli military operatives who planned it and carried it out, and it was retroactively renamed Operation Yonatan after the raid commander, Col. Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, the only Israeli soldier to die in the raid.

Hijack

On June 27, 1976 Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300, originating in Tel Aviv, Israel and carrying 248 passengers and a crew of 12 took off from Athens, Greece, heading for Paris, France. Soon after the 12:30 p.m. takeoff, the flight was hijacked by four terrorists. The hijackers, two from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — External Operations (PFLP-EO) and two from the German "Revolutionäre Zellen", commandeered the flight, diverting it to Benghazi, Libya. There it was held on the ground for seven hours for refueling, and for the release of a female hostage; thereafter taking off and arriving at 3:15 the next morning at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda.

At Entebbe, the four hijackers were joined by three additional terrorists, supported by the pro-Palestinian forces of Uganda's President, Idi Amin. The terrorists were led by Wilfried Böse (and not, as occasionally reported, by Ilich Ramírez Sánchez a.k.a. "Carlos the Jackal"). They demanded the release of 40 Palestinians held in Israel and 13 other detainees in prisons in Kenya, France, Switzerland, and Germany, or they would begin killing hostages on July 1.

The passengers were held hostage in the transit hall of Entebbe International Airport's old terminal. The hijackers, who demanded that Israel release Palestinian prisoners, released a large number of hostages, keeping only Israelis and Jews, whom they threatened to kill if Israel did not comply with their demand.

Upon the announcement by the hijackers that the airline crew and non-Israeli/non-Jewish passengers would be released and put on another Air France plane that had been brought to Entebbe for that purpose, Flight 139's Captain Michel Bacos announced to the hijackers that all passengers, including the remaining ones, were his responsibility, and that he would not leave them behind. Bacos' entire crew, down to the most junior flight attendant, followed suit. A French nun also refused to leave, and insisted that one of the remaining hostages take her place, but was forced into the awaiting Air France plane by Ugandan soldiers.

Israeli raid

On the July 1 deadline, with no rescue mission in motion, the government of Israel offered to negotiate with the hijackers in order to extend the deadline to July 4. On July 3, the Israeli cabinet approved Operation Entebbe under the command of Brigadier General Dan Shomron. After days of collecting intelligence and careful planning masterminded by Mossad officer Mookie Betzer, four Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft flew secretly from Israel and landed at night at Entebbe Airport without the aid of ground control. They were followed by an air force jet with medical facilities, which landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya.

Over a hundred IDF troops, including members of the elite Sayeret Matkal team and possibly some Mossad troops, were involved at Entebbe — with the support of the Kenyan government, who opposed Idi Amin's regime.

The Israeli forces landed an hour before midnight, with cargo bay doors already open. A black Mercedes with accompanying Land Rovers 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 Mercedes car was owned by an Israeli civilian, and was apparently spray painted black for the raid, on the understanding that it would be returned to the owner in its original color.

The Mercedes, and its escorts, quickly travelled to the Old Terminal in the same fashion as Amin. However, on the way, two Ugandan sentries who were aware that Idi Amin recently purchased a white Mercedes that replaced his black one, ordered the cars to stop and were immediately shot dead. In fear of prematurely alerting the terrorists inside the terminal, the cars sped up and the assault teams were quickly sent into action.

The hostages were sitting in the main hall of the building, directly adjacent to the runway. The Israelis sprang from their vehicles and burst into the terminal yelling, "Get down! Get down!" in Hebrew and English. The advantage to most of the hostages was not just that they spoke Hebrew and understood the orders being given to them by their rescuers, but that most of the Israelis had already experienced four wars and received military training. However, one hostage ran towards the commandos and was shot down. Three hijackers in the building aimed their weapons toward the Israeli troops and were shot down. Another soldier called out in Hebrew, "Where are the rest of them?" apparently meaning the terrorists. The hostages pointed to a connecting door, upon which the Israeli soldiers pulled the pins on some hand grenades, kicked in the door and threw the grenades in. After the resulting explosions, the troops entered the room and shot three hijackers sitting at a table, stunned by the explosions. The Israelis returned back to their airplane and began loading the hostages on board. Several Ugandan soldiers began to fire at them from the cover of the airport, killing two hostages. The Israelis returned fire without sustaining any casualties of their own and finished the loading. It is sometimes said that as the commander of the operation, Yoni Netanyahu, ran up the ramp in the plane last in the line, he turned for a moment and was shot in the face. He dropped to the floor of the plane, dead. However, in his book called Entebbe: A Defining Moment In the War on Terror, Iddo Netanyahu says that Yoni was about to enter the Old Terminal when he was shot in the chest by a burst from an AK-47. No one stopped to help him until later, as he had given the order that hostages were to be rescued before help was given to their own casualties. Yoni died as he was being evacuated to the C-130 just before the hostages were. Later, when doctors examined the body, they found that the bullets had entered through the chest. Iddo Netanyahu concluded from the evidence that his brother was most likely killed when a Ugandan soldier fired from inside the building.

The assault lasted less than thirty minutes and six hijackers were killed. One hostage was killed when he leaped at the Israeli forces. Of the 103 hostages, 3 died. It is speculated that Israeli forces captured some of the hijackers but there is no confirmation of that. Colonel Netanyahu was the only Israeli military casualty during the operation. A total of 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed during the raid, and about 11 Ugandan Army Air Force fighter planes sitting on the ramp were deliberately destroyed. The rescued hostages were flown out shortly after the fighting via Nairobi to Israel.

Dora Bloch, a 75-year-old hostage who was recovering from a choking episode, died at Mulago hospital in Kampala when the Israelis struck. In April 1987, Henry Kyemba, who was Uganda's Minister of Health at that time, told Uganda's Human Rights Commission that Dora Bloch had been dragged from her hospital bed and murdered by two army officers on Amin's orders. Bloch's remains were recovered in 1979 following the Uganda-Tanzania War that led to the end of Amin's rule.

Analysis

One of the reasons that the raid was able to be so well planned was that the building in which the hostages were being held was built by an Israeli construction firm. Israeli firms were often involved in building projects in Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. The firm which built the airport terminal still had the blueprints, and supplied them to the government of Israel. In addition many of the released hostages were able to accurately describe the interior of the building, the number of hijackers, the involvement of Ugandan troops and many other important details.

While planning the military operation, the Israeli army built a partial replica of the airport building with the help of some Israeli civilians who had helped build the airport terminal. It has been claimed by researchers that after arriving at the military base to begin work on the replica building (not being aware beforehand what they were to do) the civilian Israeli contractors were invited to dinner with the commander of the base. At the dinner, it was indicated to them that, upon completion of the replica, and in the best interest of national security, they would be held guests of the military for a remaining few days. During the entire operation an extremely high level of security was maintained.

According to a July 4th 2006 Associated Press interview with raid organizer Mookie Betzer, Mossad operatives extensively interviewed the hostages who had been released. As a result, another source of information was a French-Jewish passenger who had been mistakenly released with the non-Jewish hostages. Betzer reports that the man had military training and "a phenomenal memory", allowing him to give information about the number and arms of the hostage-takers, among other useful details.

In the week prior to the raid, Israel had tried a number of political avenues to obtain the release of the hostages. Many sources indicate that the Israeli cabinet was prepared to release Palestinian prisoners if a military solution seemed unlikely to succeed. A retired IDF officer, General Chaim Bar-Lev, had known Idi Amin for many years, and was considered to have a strong personal relationship with him. At the request of the cabinet he spoke with Amin on the phone many times, attempting to obtain the release of the hostages without success.

Aftermath

The government of Uganda later convened a session of the United Nations Security Council to seek official condemnation of the Israeli raid, as a violation of Ugandan sovereignty. The Security Council ultimately declined to pass any resolution on the matter. In his address to the Council, the Israeli ambassador Chaim Herzog said:

"We come with a simple message to the Council: we are proud of what we have done because we have demonstrated to the world that a small country, in Israel's circumstances, with which the members of this Council are by now all too familiar, the dignity of man, human life and human freedom constitute the highest values. We are proud not only because we have saved the lives of over a hundred innocent people — men, women and children — but because of the significance of our act for the cause of human freedom." (Source: Heroes of Israel by Chaim Herzog, p. 284)

Additionally, for refusing to leave the plane, Captain Bacos was reprimanded by his superiors at Air France and suspended from duty for a period.

TV and Feature Film dramatizations

The incident was the subject of three films, two of which were US productions with American/British casts; the third was produced in Israel with mostly Israeli actors in the key roles.

Victory At Entebbe (1976)
with Anthony Hopkins, Burt Lancaster, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Dreyfuss
Director: Marvin J. Chomsky
Raid On Entebbe (1977)
with Peter Finch, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Yaphet Kotto
Director: Irvin Kershner
Producer: Edgar J. Scherick
Mivtsa Yonatan (English title: Operation Thunderbolt) (1977)
Israeli Yehoram Gaon played Col. Netanyahu
Austrian Sybil Danning and German Klaus Kinski played the hijackers.
Director: Menahem Golan
Movie theme song: 'Eretz Hatzvi' ("Land of Deer") performed by Yehoram Gaon

References

Hastings, Max. Yoni, Hero of Entebbe Bantam Doubleday Dell Publ., 1979. ISBN 0385271271
Netanyahu, Iddo. Yoni's Last Battle: The Rescue at Entebbe, 1976, Gefen Books. ISBN 9652292834
Netanyahu, Iddo. Entebbe: A Defining Moment in the War on Terrorism: The Jonathan Netanyahu Story, New Leaf Press, 2003. ISBN 0892215534
Netanyahu, Jonathan / Netanyahu, Benjamin / Netanyahu, Iddo. Self-Portrait of a Hero: From the Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu, 1963-1976, Warner Books, 1998. ISBN 0446674613
Netanyahu, Jonathan. The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu, Gefen Books, 2001. ISBN 9652292672
Stevenson, William . Ninety Minutes at Entebbe, Bantam Books, 1976. ISBN 0553104829
Richler, Mordecai. Solomon Gursky Was Here, Penguin Books, 1989. Pg 539-541. ISBN 0140116087

External links

Entebbe Diary - the official, detailed account by the Israeli Defence Forces.
isayeret.com - The Israeli Special Forces Database
BBC Article and Videos - 4 July 1976: Israelis rescue Entebbe hostages (BBC)
BBC: 30th anniversary of the raid on Entebbe

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Operation Entebbe