Thread by @Tutsy22

Two days ago, marks 44 years since the heroic tale of “Operation Entebbe”, @Israel’s most daring rescue mission.

#SevenDaysAtEntebbe
#OperationEntebbeAt44
#OperationEntebbe

1. On June 27, 1976. A routine commercial flight on Air France made its way from Tel Aviv to Paris. The plane contained 248 passengers and 12 crew onboard. A stopover in Athens turned to an hijack situation.

2. While the plane was refuelling, two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations under orders of Wadie Haddad (who had earlier broken away from the PFLP of George Habash), & two members of the German Revolutionary Cells, stormed the plane.

3. Once on board, one of terrorists quickly rushed the cockpit with a revolver & a hand grenade. The hijackers then announced their demand: $5m & the release of 53 prisoners held in 4 different countries. then ordered the plane to be rerouted to Benghazi, Libya to refuel.

4. The plane touched down onto the tarmac and a small number of passengers were released before Terrorists ordered the plane to take off once more.

5. The journey continued seemingly endlessly. But eventually, the remaining passengers were escorted off the plane and into the old terminal building of Entebbe airport in Uganda.

6. The hijackers then divided Israelis from non-Israelis, gathering the former in the transit hall, the latter elsewhere. The non-Israeli group were set free and flown back to Paris. Ninety-four hostages and a dozen crew members remained.

7. In Israel, military officers were attempting to construct what they knew, which was almost nothing. The officer in charge of planning for military operations was a former elite commando and future Prime Minister, Ehud Barak.

8. Barak was then informed that the President of Uganda, Idi Amin, and his regime were colluding with the hijackers. Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, then signed off on a perilous military plan called Operation Entebbe.

9. They were provided vital intel that Amin was spending the weekend on a diplomatic trip out of Uganda. If Israel could somehow fly four Hercules transporters to Uganda, one could land and release a number of vehicles that were altered to appear similar to Amin’s vehicles.

10. By Saturday night, the team was briefed & prepared. They were led by Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of future Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. The four Hercules would be accompanied by two Boeing 707 jets with one to serve as a command post and the other as a field hospital.

11. On July 4, Israeli forces landed in Entebbe during the dead of night. The runway was obscured in darkness; the planes would have to land in complete blindness. The first plane landed, and one of the vehicles was expelled.

12. It headed straight for the terminal building, disguised with Ugandan flags and all 35 commandos in Ugandan uniforms to confuse the enemies.
But then a Ugandan soldier appeared, raising his rifle.

13. Israel soldiers fired at the soldier with their silenced pistols and the man crumpled. He then sat back up, motivating another Israeli soldier to fire with an unsilenced weapon. This instigated mass chaos as shooting ensued between the two sides.

14. Once the smoke cleared, every single one of the hijackers and 20 Ugandan soldiers were dead. The hostages were guided into the waiting aircraft. On board were 102 hostages and crew; four were either dead or missing.

15. Among them was the commander of Operation Entebbe, Yonatan Netanyahu. He had been shot within minutes of the first aircraft landing.

16. Operation Entebbe was considered a stunning success and would be later taught and studied by armies around the globe. It launched Benjamin Netanyahu—the brother of head commander, Yonatan Netanyahu—onto a prestigious political path that made him Prime Minister of Israel.

17. Operation Entebbe would later be renamed Operation Yonatan in honor of the head commander who was killed in action.

A movie based on the rescue mission, titled Entebbe is was released in May of 2018.

God bless the nation of @Israel

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌