The daring raid to save a planeload of hostages from Entebbe, Uganda, has gone down as one of the most stunning successes in Israeli military history. Formally known as Operation Thunderbolt, it has become synonymous with Jonathan Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin, the man who would later become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. The story epitomizes the dilemmas with which all Israeli leaders have had to grapple, the Israeli spirit, and the very real price paid for defending Jews around the world.
The 1970s were an era notorious for international terrorism, with numerous gangs, militias and illegal underground movements led by infamous individuals such as Carlos the Jackal dominating global headlines.
Perhaps the most well-known terror attack came in 1972, when the entire world watched as Palestinian terrorists took 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage at the Munich Olympics. Tragically, the episode ended with the massacre of all of the hostages.
Over the course of that decade, terrorists from around the world focused on Western targets, with Palestinian extremists attacking Israelis and Jews being joined by radicals from organizations based in Japan, Germany, and elsewhere.
One such attack could well have ended as tragically as the massacre in Munich: the hijacking of an Air France plane in June 1976.
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Carrying 246 mainly Jewish and Israeli passengers and a crew of 12 from Tel Aviv, the flight was scheduled to land in Paris, via a stopover in Greece. But after arriving in Athens, Greece, an additional 58 passengers, including four hijackers, boarded the plane. Just after takeoff, the flight was hijacked by two Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and by two German accomplices, Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann, from the German Revolutionary Cells.
The hijackers had the flight diverted to Benghazi, Libya, where it re-fueled, and then flew it from there to Entebbe in Uganda. The same day, a spokesman for the PFLP in Damascus contacted the Reuters news agency to announce the organization’s responsibility for the hijacking.
Although Israel tried to develop a dialogue with Uganda’s president, Idi Amin, he actually collaborated with the terrorists. It later emerged that the Ugandan government supported the hijackers, and dictator Amin, who had been informed of the hijacking from the beginning, personally welcomed them.
With the painful memory of the events in Munich still fresh, the Israeli government instructed the military to prepare plans immediately for a covert rescue operation, even as the government attempted to negotiate.
Over the following two days, as negotiations continued, the hostages were separated into non-Israelis and individuals with Israeli citizenship. Ninety-four, mainly Israeli passengers remained hostages. In a stunning act of solidarity, the 12-member Air France crew refused to walk free and stayed with them, despite the terrorists threatening to kill the hostages and detonate the airplane if their demands were not met.
When it became clear that talks with the Ugandan dictator were fruitless, the Israeli government took the decision to proceed with the plan, with the understanding that any forces landing in Uganda would be faced with armed resistance from the Ugandan army.
Operation Thunderbolt
After a week of planning and repeated practice runs, four transport aircraft carrying 100 commandos took off from Sharm el-Sheikh en route to Entebbe, and flew mostly at a height of no more than 30 meters (100 feet) in order to avoid radar detection by Egyptian, Sudanese, and Saudi Arabian forces.
The Israeli forces were aware that for the operation to be successful, speed of action was vital. As it landed at Entebbe on July 3 at 23:00 Israel time, the transport plane cargo bay doors were already open.
Upon touching down, out rolled a number of vehicles. Israeli military intelligence provided to the planners noted that Amin was usually driven in a black Mercedes car, and was accompanied by multiple Land Rovers. Hoping to use this information to bypass security checkpoints, Israeli assault team members drove identical vehicles to the terminal, where they were met by two Ugandan sentries.
Although they were instructed not to shoot at the sentries, the first commandos opened fire using silenced pistols when the latter hesitated — evidently suspicious after Amin had recently procured a white Mercedes, not the black one being driven toward them. With the Israeli plan not being followed closely, an Israeli commando in one of the following Land Rovers opened fire with an unsuppressed rifle. Worried that the gunfire had alerted the hijackers, the assault team quickly approached the terminal.
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With time against them, the Israelis exited the vehicles and ran towards the terminal. Accurate intelligence reports meant that they knew where the hostages were being held: in the main hall of the airport building, directly adjacent to the runway.
As they entered the terminal, the commandos used a megaphone to announce, “Stay down! Stay down! We are Israeli soldiers,” in both Hebrew and English.
Unfortunately, three hostages were killed during the raid. Jean-Jacques Maimoni, a 19-year-old French immigrant to Israel, stood up and was killed when Israeli company commander Muki Betzer and another soldier mistook him for a hijacker and fired at him. Another hostage, Pasco Cohen, 52, was also fatally wounded by gunfire from the commandos. A third hostage, 56-year-old Ida Borochovitch, a Russian Jew who had emigrated to Israel, was killed by a hijacker in the crossfire.
At one point, an Israeli commando called out in Hebrew, “Where are the rest of them?” referring to the hijackers. The hostages pointed to a connecting door of the airport’s main hall, into which the commandos threw several hand grenades. They then entered the room and shot dead the three remaining hijackers, thus ending the assault.
After securing the area, the Israeli assault team immediately returned to their aircraft with the hostages. However, the operation was not yet complete; Ugandan soldiers shot at them in the process. The Israeli commandos returned fire with their AK47s, inflicting casualties on the Ugandans. During this brief but intense firefight, Ugandan soldiers fired from the airport control tower. At least five commandos were wounded, and the Israeli unit commander Yonatan (Yoni) Netanyahu brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, who would later become Israel’s prime minister, was grievously wounded.
Israeli commandos fired back at the control tower to suppress the Ugandans’ fire, using machine guns and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. The Israelis swiftly completed the transfer of hostages to the planes, carried Netanyahu aboard a stretcher, and took off. Unfortunately, during the flight, Netanyahu died in the arms of Efraim Sneh, the commander of the mission’s medical unit. In his honor, the successful operation was renamed Mivtsa Yonatan, “Operation Jonathan” in English.
The entire operation lasted 53 minutes – of which the assault lasted only 30 minutes. All seven hijackers present, and between 33 and 45 Ugandan soldiers, were killed. Numerous Soviet-built MiG-17 and MiG-21 fighter planes in use by the Uganda Army Air Force were destroyed on the ground at Entebbe Airport.
Of the more than 100 hostages held in Entebbe that day, 102 were rescued and four were killed. Dora Bloch, an elderly woman who was hospitalized during the raid, was murdered afterwards in revenge, once the Israeli forces had left.
Aftermath
On the return flight, the planes landed in Nairobi, Kenya for refueling and to attend to the wounded with medical care. Although IDF Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur initially announced it as an emergency landing, the move seemed to have been coordinated with Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta.
Although various Arab countries and groups, the Communist Bloc, and many African nations condemned the Entebbe Operation and referred to it as act of piracy, Western countries praised it and Israel’s daring. In the days after the rescue mission’s successful conclusion, the Jewish state celebrated the stunning success.
In time, the operation came to symbolize Israel’s policy not to negotiate with terrorists, whatever risks are at stake.
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