It took Israeli commandos minutes to conduct one of the greatest and most daring rescue missions in modern history, in Entebbe, Uganda, on July 4, 1976.
Not meeting the terrorists' demands could result in a massacre.
During those brief fateful moments, good triumphed over evil; the innocent were saved and the terrorists who threatened them were routed.
It was 11:30 pm Saturday night. The seventh night that over 100 Israelis, non-Israeli Jews, and the twelve-member Air France crew were held in the Entebbe airport since the PFLP (Popular Front Liberation Palestine) terrorists and two West German supporters, members of the Baader Meinhof gang, hijacked a jet while on the ground in Athens. Supporting the terrorists and giving them cover was the Ugandan regime under Idi Amin Dada. In the prior decade, Uganda had received military and non-military aid from Israel prior to severing ties in 1967.
The plane was bound from Tel Aviv to Paris. It was diverted to Benghazi airport in Libya for refueling and then headed for Entebbe.
The final deadline to meet the hijackers' demands and release forty terrorists held in Israel and thirteen in West Germany, Switzerland, France and Kenya, was steadily approaching. Negotiations managed to postpone the approaching July 1 deadline for three days. On July 1, the non-Jewish passengers were released by the terrorists. The Air France crew chose to stay with the remaining hostages. On July 3, French diplomats involved in the negotiations stated that there was no hope for an agreement.
Releasing the terrorists would embolden them to continue such operations. Not meeting the terrorists' demands could result in a massacre.
As international attention was focused upon the events, Israeli planes made their way to Uganda flying under radar over the Red Sea, in order to avoid detection by Egyptians and Saudis. They soon landed and the operation commenced.
That night, the weary hostages were sound asleep except for a group of five playing bridge. The hijackers were also within the complex. There were also about eighty Ugandan troops guarding the building.
At that moment, three Hercules personnel transports with Israel's elite Sayeret Matkal commandos, along with medical teams, had just landed at the well-lit Entebbe airport without suspicion.
The commandos drove toward the terminal in a Black Mercedes with Land Rover escorts, tricking Ugandan guards to believe that Idi Amin was visiting. Guards soon approached the vehicles and were shot, the ruse was now over. Time was of the essence. A few seconds delay could foil the entire operation. Taking a chance that the airport complex was not booby trapped, they headed toward the hostage compound. Nearby, seven parked Soviet-made MIGS were hastily destroyed, preventing pursuit of the Israeli aircraft after the operation. The commandos were just a few hundred yards away. They burst in, alerting the stunned hostages that they were Israelis and to keep low. Some shouted out the word nes, Hebrew for "miracle".
Over the next 45 seconds, there were bursts of gunfire, and then the firing ended. The hostages were quickly escorted on board the Hercules transports, which headed home to Israel via a brief stop in Nairobi, Kenya, for refueling and medical treatment for some of the wounded. The entire raid lasted fifty-three minutes.
It took fifty-three minutes to thwart the plans of the PFLP.
The operation was so daring, the Israeli cabinet repeatedly deliberated, and only decided to proceed at the last minute, within hours of the deadline. The mission's overall commander, Brigadier-General Dan Shomron, later described the daring and extreme difficulties of the rescue mission: "You had more than one hundred people sitting in a small room, surrounded by terrorists with their fingers on the trigger. They could fire in a fraction of a second. We had to fly seven hours land safely, drive to the terminal area where the hostages were being held, get inside, and eliminate the terrorists before any of them could fire."
The seven hijackers and approximately twenty Ugandan troops died. Three hostages were killed during the gunfire
That day, which also happened to be the American bicentennial, forces that threaten freedom were routed.
exchange. Israeli Commando Surin Hershko was paralyzed when he was shot while on a diversionary tactic. One passenger, Dora Bloch, a Jewish British citizen, who was hospitalized earlier for stomach pains, was murdered the next day by Ugandan soldiers.
The rescue operation, originally named Operation Thunderbolt, was renamed Operation Yonatan in honor of the operation's commander, Yonatan Netanyahu, 30, who was cut down by a Ugandan sentry as he was about to enter the compound. Netanyahu believed from the outset that the plan was doable and his confidence influenced government leaders and his fellow commandos. On that day, one of Israel's greatest soldiers had fallen.
That day, which also happened to be the American bicentennial, forces that threaten freedom were routed by courage and daring. In the UN General Assembly, some praised the mission, others condemned and criticized. No matter. All words aside, heroic actions spoke on that triumphant day.
Thirty three years later, as the threat of terrorism looms large, Entebbe stands as a model of victory and of how victory is achieved.