Operation Entebbe 1976: The Israeli Hostage Rescue in Uganda

Operation Entebbe was the Israeli commando raid of 3-4 July 1976 that freed hostages from a hijacked Air France airliner held at Entebbe airport in Uganda. The week-long crisis began on 27 June, when militants seized Flight 139 and flew it to Idi Amin’s Uganda. The rescue, carried out more than 4,000 km from Israel, became one of the best-known hostage operations in history and shaped how many states responded to terrorism.

Background: hijackings in the 1970s

In the late 1960s and 1970s, airliner hijacking had become a common tactic of Palestinian militant groups and their European allies. The killing of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and other attacks had hardened Israel’s policy of refusing to free prisoners in exchange for hostages, although it had made exceptions in the past.

The faction behind the Entebbe hijacking was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations, led by Wadie Haddad, which had split from the main PFLP. It worked with the West German Revolutionary Cells, a far-left urban guerrilla group.

Uganda was an unusual destination. Its ruler, Idi Amin, had once been close to Israel, which trained Ugandan forces in the 1960s. After he expelled Israeli advisers in 1972, Amin turned towards Libya and the Arab states and became openly hostile to Israel.

The hijacking and the hostages

On 27 June 1976, Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300 flying from Tel Aviv to Paris, stopped in Athens. Four hijackers boarded there: two Palestinians and two Germans, Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann. Shortly after take-off they took control of the aircraft, which carried 248 passengers and 12 crew.

The plane refuelled in Benghazi, Libya, where one passenger was released, and landed at Entebbe early on 28 June. More militants joined the original four. The hostages were moved into the old terminal building, and Ugandan soldiers took up positions around it.

The hijackers demanded the release of 53 prisoners, 40 of them held in Israel and the rest in Kenya, France, Switzerland and West Germany. They set a deadline of 1 July, later extended to 4 July.

On 29 June the hijackers divided the hostages, separating Israelis and many other Jewish passengers from the rest. To survivors, the selection carried painful echoes of the Holocaust. Over 30 June and 1 July, 148 non-Israeli hostages were released and flown to Paris.

About 106 people remained, including the 12 Air France crew. Captain Michel Bacos told the hijackers that his crew would stay with the remaining passengers, a decision later widely honoured. One elderly British-Israeli hostage, Dora Bloch, was taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala after choking on food.

Planning the raid

In Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government publicly signalled willingness to negotiate while the army studied a rescue. Released hostages gave useful details, and Israeli firms that had helped build the terminal supplied plans of the building.

The plan, first called Operation Thunderbolt, was overseen by Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur and Defence Minister Shimon Peres. Brigadier General Dan Shomron commanded the force on the ground. The assault on the terminal was given to Sayeret Matkal, an elite reconnaissance unit led by Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu.

Four C-130 Hercules transport aircraft would carry about 100 commandos, vehicles and medical teams. To help them approach the terminal, the soldiers brought a black Mercedes and Land Rovers meant to look like the vehicles of a senior Ugandan officer’s convoy.

What happened on 3-4 July 1976

The aircraft flew low over the Red Sea to avoid radar and landed at Entebbe shortly after 11 pm local time on 3 July. The vehicles drove towards the old terminal. Ugandan sentries challenged them, shots were fired, and surprise was partly lost, but the assault team reached the building within moments.

Inside, commandos shot the hijackers present in the hall and called out in Hebrew for hostages to lie down. Three hostages were killed in the crossfire. Yonatan Netanyahu was hit by fire from the control tower area and died of his wounds, the only Israeli soldier killed. Several others were wounded, one of them permanently paralysed.

Other teams fought Ugandan troops and destroyed about 11 Ugandan Air Force MiG fighters on the ground to prevent pursuit. The hostages were loaded on to a C-130, and the force left after roughly 90 minutes on the ground, refuelling in Nairobi, Kenya, before reaching Israel on 4 July.

Consequences

The raid was greeted with jubilation in Israel and admiration across much of the West. The government renamed it Operation Jonathan in honour of the fallen commander, whose younger brother Benjamin later became prime minister.

Uganda suffered heavy losses: an estimated 45 soldiers were killed, though figures vary. Amin took revenge on Dora Bloch, who was murdered in Kampala; her remains were recovered only after his fall in 1979. Ugandan forces also attacked Kenyans living in Uganda, because Kenya had allowed the refuelling, and hundreds are believed to have been killed or driven out.

At the United Nations, Uganda and African states condemned the raid as aggression, while Israel and the United States defended it as a rescue. The Security Council debate in July 1976 ended without a resolution.

Myths and facts

A widespread story claims the Mercedes trick failed because Amin had recently switched to a white Mercedes. Accounts from participants differ on how much this mattered; what is clear is that sentries challenged the convoy and the first shots ended the element of surprise.

It is also often said that all the hostages were Israeli. In fact the group held until the end included Jewish passengers of other nationalities and the non-Jewish French crew, who had chosen to stay.

Another common belief is that the operation was a flawless, bloodless success. It was remarkably effective, but it cost the lives of three hostages and an Israeli officer, dozens of Ugandan soldiers died, and the killing of Dora Bloch and of Kenyans in Uganda showed that civilians outside the airport paid a price too.

Legacy

The raid inspired a wave of books and films within months, including three films released in 1976 and 1977, two of them made for American television, and it remains a staple of military history courses. For Israel’s armed forces, it became a model of long-range planning, deception and speed.

Its influence spread well beyond Israel. In October 1977 West Germany’s new GSG 9 unit stormed a hijacked Lufthansa airliner at Mogadishu, Somalia, in an operation that drew on the lessons of Entebbe. Other governments created or expanded similar hostage-rescue forces in the following years.

The old terminal building at Entebbe still stands beside the modern airport. Ugandan and Israeli leaders have since met there, a sign of how relations between the two countries changed after Amin’s fall in 1979.

Timeline

• 1976, 27 June: Air France Flight 139 is hijacked after leaving Athens.
• 1976, 28 June: The aircraft lands at Entebbe after refuelling in Benghazi.
• 1976, 29 June: Hijackers separate Israeli and Jewish hostages from the others.
• 1976, 30 June - 1 July: 148 non-Israeli hostages are released.
• 1976, 3 July: Israel’s cabinet approves the raid; aircraft land at Entebbe late that night.
• 1976, 4 July: The rescued hostages arrive in Israel.
• 1976, 9-14 July: The UN Security Council debates the raid without adopting a resolution.

Why it matters

Operation Entebbe showed that a state could strike thousands of kilometres from home to rescue hostages, and it encouraged many countries to build specialist counter-terrorism units. It also exposed the role of a sovereign government in sheltering hijackers, and it remains a reference point in debates about rescue missions, sovereignty and the use of force.