Raid of Entebbe

The raid of Entebbe was held in the night of the 3 to the July 4th 1976, on the airport of Entebbe in Uganda. It was called operation thunder by the Israeli military forces having planned it and carried out, and was named retroactively operation Jonathan after the death of the colonel Jonathan " Yoni" Netanyahu, the only Israeli soldier killed during the raid.

The taking of hostages

The June 27th, 1976, the flight Air France 139, a Airbus A300, coming from Tel-Aviv to Israel and transporting 244 passengers and twelve team members takes off of Athens in Greece, to join Paris in France. Shortly after takeoff with 12:30, the flight is diverted by four Palestinians. The takers of hostages, two of the Liberation popular front of Palestine and two German of the Red Army Fraction, also known under the name of band with Baader, take the command of the plane and divert it towards Benghazi in Libya. There, it remained on the ground during seven hours to restock while carburizing, and to slacken a woman hostage; then redécolla and arrived at 3:15 at the international airport of Entebbe in Uganda.

In Entebbe, the four takers of hostages were joined by three other terrorists, and obtained the support of the forces Palestinian pro of the Ugandan president, Idi Amin Dada. The terrorists were ordered by Wilfried Böse (and not, as it is known as sometimes, by Ilich Ramírez Sánchez known as " Carlos"). They asked for the release of forty Palestinian imprisoned in Israel and thirteen other prisoners the Kenya, France, Suisse and Germany.

The passengers were retained as hostages in the hall of transit of the old terminal of the international airport of Entebbe. The takers of hostages, initially slackened a great number of hostages, keeping only the Israelis and the Juifs, which were death threats if Israel would not reach their request.

In spite of the advertisement by the takers of hostages that the crew and the passengers not-Israelis/not-Jews would be slackened and put on another aircraft of Air France sent to Entebbe to this end, the captain of the flight 139 Michel Bacos announced to the hijackers that all the passengers, including those which remained, were under its responsibility, and that it would not give up them. All the crew remained on the spot. A French nun also refused to leave, and insisted that one of the hostages remaining took his place, but it was put of force on the aircraft of Air France by the Ugandan soldiers.

The Israeli raid

The government of Israel refused to negotiate with the takers of hostages and rather decided to undertake a military action of help to release the remaining hostages. After several days spent to collect information and to plan the operation, four transport aircraft Hercules C-130 of the Israeli air force took off Israel secretly and landed with the airport of Entebbe without being located by Ugandan air control. They were followed by a plane with medical equipment, which lands with the international airport of Jomo Kenyatta to Nairobi with the Kenya.

A hundred soldiers, including the members of the commando of elite Sayeret Matkal, and probably some men of the Mossad were sent to Entebbe, with the support of the Kenyan government, then adversary of the mode of Idi Amin Dada.

The Israeli forces landed at 11 p.m., with the doors of the already open airfreighters. A black Mercedes and a Land Rover, models identical to those used by Amin Hobby-horse and its bodyguards when they regularly came to return visit to the hostages were employed to divert the suspicions, and were led by the grimés Israeli soldiers of the plane to the terminal. They were lent by Israeli civilians, and apparently repainted in black for the raid, given that which they would be turned over to the owners with their color of origin.

The Ugandan persons in charge of the tower of control were apparently confused by this stratagem, so that they left Mercedes and Land Rover to approach the terminal. The hostages had sat in the principal hall of the building, directly adjacent with the way of rolling. The Israelis jumped then of their vehicles and spouted out abruptly in the terminal while shouting: “With ground! With ground! ” in Hebrew. An hostage ran then to the front of the Commando and was killed. Three hijackers in the building aimed then at the Israeli troops with their weapons and were killed. Another soldier asked in Hebrew: “where are the different ones? ” while speaking apparently about the terrorists. The hostages indicated the adjacent door. The Israeli soldiers then took the pin out their grenades with hand, smashed the door and launched them inside the part. After the explosions, soldiers of the commandos entered the part and killed the three other takers of hostages, struck by the explosion. The Israelis turned over then to their planes and started to take on board the hostages on board. Some Ugandan soldiers then started to draw to them above since the roof from the airport, killing two hostages. The Israelis retorted without undergoing more losses in their rows and thus completed the loading. It was said that it is at this time that the commander of the operation, Jonathan Netanyahu, was killed. But in its book called Entebbe: one definite moment of terrorism , Iddo Netanyahou said that Jonathan was about to enter the terminal when it was touched by a gust of AK-47. It would then have given the order to evacuate the hostages before one deals with his wounds. He died while he was being evacuated in C-130.

The raid lasted approximately about thirty minutes and six takers of hostages were killed. An hostage was killed by the Israeli forces. On 103 hostages, three died. One speculated in the fact that the Israeli forces had captured takers of hostages, but there was never confirmation on this point. Colonel Netanyahou (brother of the Israeli politician Benyamin Netanyahou) was only the Israeli soldier killed during the raid. A total of forty-five Ugandan were killed during the raid, and them fighters Ugandan stored on the track destroyed. The hostages were transported after the engagements to Israel via Nairobi.

Bloch, a 75 year old gilded hostage, was at the hospital of Kampala at the time of the Israeli raid, allowed following the emotional shock due to the taking of hostages. It is there that she died. In April 1987, Henry Kyemba, then Ugandan Minister for Health, told at the Ugandan commission of the human rights that Dora Bloch was trailed of force of the hospital and was assassinated by two officers of the army according to the orders of Amin Dada. Its remainders were recovered in 1979 following the war between the Tanzania and the Uganda which precipitated the end of the dictator.

Analyzes

One of the reasons of the success of the raid was the fact that the terminal where the hostages were retained was built by an Israeli company. The Israeli companies were often implied in the construction of buildings in Africa during the years 1960 and 1970. The company having built the terminal always had the plans, and forwarded them to the Israeli government. Moreover, much of the slackened hostages gave invaluable information on the interior of the buildings, the number of takers of hostages, the implication of the Ugandan troops and much of other important details. During the preparation of the operation, it was built a counterpart partial of the airport with the assistance of Israeli civilians having worked with his construction.

During the week preceding the raid, Israel tried to obtain the release of the Otages by various ways. Many sources indicate that the Israeli government had prepared the release of the Palestinian prisoners in the event of failure of the military solution. An officer in the retirement, Chaim Bar-Lev, having known for a long time Amin Hobby-horse and having strong personal relations with him, tried to negotiate without success on the telephone with Amin Dada to obtain the release of the hostages.

Consequences

The Ugandan government later convened a session of the Safety advice of UNO, in order to obtain a judgment of the Israeli raid for violation of its national sovereignty. The Safety advice refused to pass a resolution in this direction. With the address of the safety advice, the Ambassadeur Israeli Chaim Herzog declared: We have a simple message with the council: we are proud of what we did, because that shows with the whole world that for a small country, Israel in the circumstance, with which the members of the safety advice are now all familiar, dignity, human life and freedom constitute the highest values. We are proud, not only because we saved the life of a hundred innocent people - men, women and children - but also because the significance of our act means human freedom. (Source: Heroes off Israel by Chaim Herzog, p. 284)

The success of this raid weakened also the dictatorial government of Idi Amin Dada and reinforced her opponents. The mode fell a few years later.

Films

The event was the subject of three films.

Victoire in Entebbe (1976)

with Anthony Hopkins, Burt Lancaster, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Dreyfuss

Raid on Entebbe (1977)

with Peter Finch, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Yaphet Kotto

Mission Yonatan (English title: Operation Thunderbolt ) (1977)

It is also question in the Last king d' Écosse .

Books

The Book Entebbé the secrecies of the ray Israélien (1976) is a book of Gerard de Villiers recalling the episode of this catch of hostage and the raid. The book tells this history through the eyes of a terrorist, several hostages and Israélien staff.

See too

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