The hijacking that took place on June 27, 1976, is one of the world’s ten most famous hijackings.
Unlike other hijackings, this time the hostages were Israeli Jews and the hijackers were PLO personnel and the Red Army Brigade, a West German terrorist organization.
What’s even more different is that almost all of the hostages were rescued by Israel in a perfect run thousands of miles away!
So, why and how did the terrorists hijack the plane, and how did Israel plan and execute the rescue operation?
The purpose of the hijacking, hostages in exchange for imprisoned terrorists
Just after the Fourth Middle East War, Egypt tried to make peace with Israel, and the conflict between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel was very intense, during which a number of PLO fighters were captured by Israel.
Israeli hostages who were successfully rescued
It was against this backdrop that the hijacking took place in exchange for hostages, mainly to force Israel to release 40 Palestinians held in Israel, as well as 13 other suspects engaged in terrorist activities in places of detention in Kenya, France, Switzerland and Germany, respectively.
Posing as passengers and exploiting security loopholes to successfully hijack the plane
After meticulous planning, the terrorists targeted Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300 passenger plane, for hijacking. Because 105 of the 258 passengers on board the plane were Jewish, this was exactly the leverage the hijackers needed.
On June 27, 1976, the French airliner took off from Tel Aviv, Israel, on time, with a planned stopover in Athens for a refill before flying to France.
Of course, at 12:20 p.m., Flight 139, which had been replenished at Athens airport, took off for Paris, and the hijackers took advantage of a security loophole to board the plane with weapons from Athens. Ten minutes later, with the start of the terrorist hijacking operation, the silence on the plane was instantly broken and everyone realized that they had run into big trouble, but there was nothing they could do under the threat of the terrorists.
The crew, under the command of the terrorists, first landed in Benghazi, Libya, to refuel, during which a pregnant woman was allowed to leave the plane.
The terrorists made conditions for the release of the hostages, threatening to kill all hostages if they could not be met. Naturally, the Israeli side would not be shy about agreeing to the terrorists’ terms.
After initial negotiations proved fruitless, the plane, which had been in Benghazi for seven hours, suddenly took off forcibly while refueling, this time to Entebbe Airport in Uganda, and arrived at its destination at 03:15 a.m. the next morning.
The terrorists wanted to take the plane to Uganda because Amin, then a dictator in Uganda who ate human flesh for fun, was supportive of the hijacking. The reason for Amin’s support was that in the previous war between Uganda and Kenya, the then Israeli Prime Minister, Mrs. Meir, refused Amin’s request for Israeli fighter jets to attack Kenya.
After the plane landed, the Jews were held in the old terminal of the airport, and Ugandan dictator Amin personally visited the hostages three times and pretended to guarantee their safety. on June 29, Amin gave Israel a deadline of 14:00 on July 1 to solve the problem and strongly demanded that Israel meet the demands of the hijackers.
Ugandan President Amin (second from right), who appeared at Entebbe Airport
Then Israeli Defense Minister Peres successfully adjusted the deadline to July 4 in order to stall for time and buy more preparation time by pretending to help Amin apply for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Meanwhile, as a gesture, with Amin’s assistance, the terrorists released all the non-Israeli passengers, while the remaining 105 Jews continued to be detained.
It is said that the captain of the flight, Michel Bako, did not agree to leave at that time, saying that he wanted to stay with his passengers and keep them safe, and that a French nun also refused to leave and insisted on an exchange of a Jewish person by herself, but both of their courageous actions were rejected. Salutations, two ordinary but great people!
Flight 139’s captain Michel Bako
Who were the hijackers?
There were 10 hijackers, eight of whom were members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the remaining two were members of the German terrorist organization Baader-Meinhof Group, which also has a familiar name: the Red Army Brigade. The hijackers were led by German Wilfred Boeser, not the notorious “Carlos the Jackal” as previously speculated.
Never Give In to Terrorists and Israel’s Response
Within 10 minutes of the loss of contact, Flight 139 was ruled a hijacking by Israel’s prestigious Mossad, which immediately began collecting and processing relevant intelligence information, clarifying the hijackers’ purpose in a short period of time and buying a lot of time to maneuver later.
In response to the hijackers’ offer, Israel quickly developed a response strategy.
On the surface, Israel said it was seriously considering the hijackers’ demands. Secretly, plans to rescue the hostages by force were quickly initiated.
Israeli Prime Minister Rabin
The reason for the forceful approach was because then Israeli Prime Minister Rabin believed that compromising with the terrorists would only condone their potential for more terrorist actions in the future, and that this illusion of theirs must be destroyed by force in order to ensure Israel’s security! Kudos to Rabin here!
Thus, the Israeli army and the Mossad, the intelligence agency, developed a well thought out and detailed plan of action.
Such a rescue operation, if it fails, will be quite costly, and the enraged terrorists are likely to take the hostages and go on a killing spree.
Therefore, the rescue operation can only succeed and not fail, the rescue plan must be foolproof.
Of course, in addition to Israel, other relevant countries asked Israel to meet the conditions of the hijackers, in order to release the hostages, but Israel obviously will not agree.
Codenamed “Operation Thunderbolt,” the rescue plan was meticulous and detailed, almost seamless
On the one hand, the Israeli side, through the designer of Entebbe Airport (which happens to be an Israeli company, as fate would have it), pulled the design of the airport, while using U.S. reconnaissance satellites to get a clear picture of the airport.
The hostages were being held by terrorists in the old terminal building across the street from the airport
This is not all, the Mossad also sent agents, disguised as cleaners at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, concealing cameras on mops, moreover, the layout of the airport, the location of the hostages, the terrorists and Ugandan military personnel, and the location were made clear, which greatly facilitated the success of the Israeli military operation.
According to the intelligence, the hostages were all on the top floor of the terminal, the Ugandan soldiers were on the second floor, and the terrorists were scattered on the first, second and top floors.
Model of Entebbe Airport
Using the intelligence information they had, they made an almost identical model of Entebbe Airport, even down to the number of steps, just to be sure.
Hand-drawn maps and lines of attack
After the plan of action was developed, it was also rehearsed repeatedly to correct every detail that could go wrong.
The specific plan of action shows the meticulousness of the Israeli mind.
The route map for the rescue operation was simple: impersonate Ugandan President Amin to visit the hostages at the airport, use his identity to break into the airport, take control of the terminal building, eliminate the terrorists, and then rescue the hostages.
The Mercedes disguised as President Amin’s car drove into the transport plane
To pretend, they had to act like it. They carefully studied Amin’s travel patterns, his personnel and equipment, and especially the vehicles accompanying him. Amin liked Mercedes jeeps, so Israel enlisted an Israeli-owned Mercedes jeep of the same model as Amin’s and painted it the same black color, along with an identical number of jeeps, all of which were equipped to move with the commandoes along with the transports.
Of course, there is no shortage of impostors Amin, this is a good solution, Mossad found a black man who almost resembles Amin to impersonate, and the effect is quite good.
The hostages were rescued in a crisp and clean raid
In the early hours of July 3, 1976, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin approved the rescue plan, code-named “Operation Thunder”, and immediately implemented it.
The overall commander of the rescue operation was Brigadier General Shom, commander of the Israeli Special Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Heim Oran, his deputy, and Lieutenant Colonel Vilnai, head of reconnaissance of the paratrooper brigade. The assault team was led by Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and commander of the Israeli Special Forces General Staff Reconnaissance Battalion (Wild Boys Special Forces), who carried out the mission.
Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu
At 1:00 p.m., the rescue plan began to enter the substantive phase of the operation. four C-130 Hercules transport planes took off with 280 Israeli commandos and combat equipment, while two Boeing 707s were prepared to accompany them as command and logistical support, four F4 Ghost fighters were escorted, and one plane carrying medical equipment.
Israeli F-4E “Ghost” fighters
The operation was unprecedented for Israel, first of all, it was a long distance of 4,000 km, which itself faced many unknown dangers; on the other hand, many countries passing through the air were in a hostile attitude towards Israel, in case of unpredictable events, there would be big trouble.
In order to ensure the safety of the flight and the suddenness of the operation, Israel also contacted Kenya, Uganda’s old rival, and an accompanying air force plane carrying medical equipment landed at Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
After an eight-hour flight, the formation of IAF aircraft flew over several hostile countries, flew at ultra-low altitude to bypass Ugandan Air Force radar over the airport, and took a blind landing with radar off, successfully landing at Entebbe International Airport at 23:45 Ugandan time on July 3, 1976, in the dark of night.
The pre-prepared black Mercedes-Benz cars were seen sliding out of the tail bunker of the transport aircraft in a fishtail line and immediately headed for the terminal building.
Unfortunately, as the assault team reached 200 meters from the terminal, two Ugandan sentries emerged from the darkness and spotted the Israeli convoy, and the Israelis promptly killed the enemy and launched an all-out assault on the terminal.
Unfortunately, the commando commander, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, was hit by a bullet and fell to the ground during the attack, but since he had asked the commandos in advance to disregard the wounded during the attack and to do all they could to carry out rescue operations, no one stopped to rescue the hit Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, who unfortunately died.
After an offensive with the defenders, the Israeli commandos made it to the top floor of the terminal where the hostages were being held.
However, the situation on the top floor was complicated, and the terrorists who had been awakened were mixed in with the hostages, making it difficult to distinguish them. The Israeli commandos did not hesitate to raise their Uzi’s and fired, killing all the terrorists. The terrorists were killed with an average of more than 70 bullets each. It turned out that the commandos were shouting in Hebrew, which only the Jews could understand, and the terrorists had no idea what was being said, which was a clever solution.
Unfortunately, while killing the terrorists, three hostages were unfortunately killed by mistake, one of them was killed as a terrorist because he suddenly stood up again, and the other two died from ricochet wounds.
Soon, the Israeli commandos cleared the airport of all 45 Ugandan soldiers and terrorists and blew up five MiG 21s and four MiG 17s, the entire Ugandan air force, before withdrawing, creating the conditions for a smooth retreat.
The entire operation took less than an hour, just 53 minutes.
The rescued hostages were placed on the transport plane and returned to Israel without incident, and the Israelis created a historic breakthrough in the rescue of hostages.
Ugandan Air Force MiG fighter plane blown up by Israeli “wild boys”
It should be noted here that the commando commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, was a remarkable soldier and the only one of the commando team to die in this operation! If it was not for this accidental death by gunshot, the achievements after that were unlimited.
The only Lieutenant Colonel Netanyahu to die during the battle
It is said that the Ugandan dictator Amin was furious after learning that Israel had succeeded in rescuing the hostages, but in the end he had to praise the Israelis: as a professional soldier, I have to say that the Israeli boys did a really good job!
The rescued hostage
After the hostage incident was solved, another 75-year-old American hostage, Dora Bloch, was temporarily released by the terrorists due to choking while eating earlier, and was treated in a hospital in Kampala, 22 kilometers away from the airport, before being killed by Ugandan dictator Amin in retaliation.
The soldier who accidentally killed the hostage was convicted of indirect murder by an Israeli military court, stripped of his military service and never recruited.
Israel’s successful rescue of the hostages, with its thrilling process and almost perfect ending, shocked the world, and once again impressed the world with its small state and small people!
The hostage incident was solved perfectly, and Israel explained to the world with its own resolute action what is: those who violate Israel will be punished from afar!
There is no point in talking, just do it!
Extended tip: Ugandan dictator Amin was later overthrown by Tanzania in the Ugandan War and fled to Saudi Arabia, where he died on August 16, 2003.
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