Forty years ago on July 4, 1976 the world was riveted by the Entebbe hostage rescue involving an Air France hijacked commercial airliner, terrorists, and Israeli commandos. The flight was hijacked while traveling from Tel Aviv, Israel to Paris, France. It was diverted by the terrorists to Entebbe, Uganda and held for a week at the Entebbe airport. One week later the hostages were rescued by Israeli commandos in a raid that convinced the militaries of other nations that a highly-trained counterterrorism force was needed by their countries. The U.S. was one of these countries and the successful Entebbe hostage rescue was a factor in the establishment of a counterterrorism unit called Blue Light.
The terrorists belonged to two groups. Two Germans were from the Revolutionary Cells and two Palestinians were from a faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). On the way to Uganda the aircraft landed at first in Athens, Greece and then in Benghazi, Libya where it refueled and picked up additional terrorists. Once reaching Uganda about 150 of the captive passengers were released and flown to Paris – the remaining captives were Israelis, Jews, or members of the 12-person flight crew. The terrorists wanted Palestinians and others imprisoned in Israel and four other countries released in exchange for the hostages.
The raid was difficult to conduct – approximately 200 commandos from Israel flew on four C-130 cargo aircraft over 2,000 miles to Uganda. The operation was planned and executed in a short-time frame. There were lots of things that could have gone wrong – an aircraft could be shot down, the element of surprise could be lost, or the hostages could be moved.
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Forty years ago on July 4, 1976 the world was riveted by the Entebbe hostage rescue involving an Air France hijacked commercial airliner, terrorists, and Israeli commandos. The flight was hijacked while traveling from Tel Aviv, Israel to Paris, France. It was diverted by the terrorists to Entebbe, Uganda and held for a week at the Entebbe airport. One week later the hostages were rescued by Israeli commandos in a raid that convinced the militaries of other nations that a highly-trained counterterrorism force was needed by their countries. The U.S. was one of these countries and the successful Entebbe hostage rescue was a factor in the establishment of a counterterrorism unit called Blue Light.
The terrorists belonged to two groups. Two Germans were from the Revolutionary Cells and two Palestinians were from a faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). On the way to Uganda the aircraft landed at first in Athens, Greece and then in Benghazi, Libya where it refueled and picked up additional terrorists. Once reaching Uganda about 150 of the captive passengers were released and flown to Paris – the remaining captives were Israelis, Jews, or members of the 12-person flight crew. The terrorists wanted Palestinians and others imprisoned in Israel and four other countries released in exchange for the hostages.
The raid was difficult to conduct – approximately 200 commandos from Israel flew on four C-130 cargo aircraft over 2,000 miles to Uganda. The operation was planned and executed in a short-time frame. There were lots of things that could have gone wrong – an aircraft could be shot down, the element of surprise could be lost, or the hostages could be moved.
The rescue force landed at night on the airfield. The airport passenger terminal, where the hostages were kept, was attacked by the commandos. All the terrorists and some Ugandan soldiers were killed, the hostages rescued, and the commandos and hostages flew back to Israel.
The raid was conducted by the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, Golani infantrymen, Israeli Air Force crew, and a few other forces. The Israeli intelligence agency – Mossad – assisted with some vital information. Casualties were light considering the complexity of the mission. Three hostages and one Israeli soldier died. The Entebbe hostage rescue operation became known as a textbook case of how to conduct hostage rescues involving hijacked airliners. The Entebbe hostage rescue, and other successful counterterrorist operations of that time frame, would encourage other nations to develop their own counterterrorism units.
References:
Gilbert, Lela, “Jerusalem Notebook: 40 Years after Entebbe – An Interview with Iddo Netanyahu”, Philos Project, July 3, 2016. Gilbert, a book author and correspondent in Jerusalem, interviewed the brother of hostage rescue ground force commander and the only Israeli commando death in the raid.
“40 Years Since Operation Entebbe”, YNet.news.com, June 2016. A series of interviews by the soldiers of the unit that conducted the Entebbe Raid.
http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-12984,00.html
WikipediaA, Operation Entebbe, an account of the counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission by Israeli commandos. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe
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