When it comes to terrorist hijacking, I believe it is something that everyone hates. Especially in the last century, due to the imperfection of anti-terrorism awareness and equipment, many horrific hijacking incidents occurred, resulting in very serious losses of people and property.
The hijacking that occurred on June 27, 1976, was one of the top ten hijackings in the world.
Unlike other hijackings, the abductees were Israeli Jews, while the hijackers were PLO personnel and the Red Army Brigade, a terrorist group in West Germany.
What is even more different is that almost all of the hostages taken this time were perfectly rescued by Israel's thousands of miles away!
So why did the terrorists hijack the plane, how did they, and how did Israel plan and carry out this rescue operation?
Israeli hostages successfully rescued
The purpose of hijacking is to exchange hostages for imprisoned terrorists
Just after the end of 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 many PLO fighters were captured by Israel.
It was against this backdrop that the hijacking took place in exchange for hostages, primarily to force Israel to release 40 Palestinians held in Israel, as well as 13 other suspects who were engaged in terrorist activities in places of detention in Kenya, France, Switzerland and Germany.
Israeli commandos
Pretending to be a passenger, he successfully hijacked the plane by taking advantage of a security checkpoint
After careful planning, the terrorists targeted the Airbus A300 flight of Air France Flight 139 as a hijacking object. Because 105 people on the plane, which carried 258 passengers, were Jews, and that's exactly the chip the hijackers needed.
On June 27, 1976, the French airliner took off from Tel Aviv, Israel, on time, and was scheduled to fly to France after being replenished in Athens.
Of course, at 12:20 p.m., Flight 139, which had been replenished at Athens Airport, flew to Paris, and the hijackers also took advantage of security loopholes to board the plane from Athens with weapons. Ten minutes later, as the terrorist hijacking operation began, the silence on the plane was suddenly broken, and everyone realized that they were in big trouble, but under the threat of terrorists, there was nothing they could do.
The crew, under the command of terrorists, first landed in Benghazi, Libya, to refuel, during which time a pregnant woman was allowed to leave the plane.
The terrorists offered conditions for the release of the hostages, threatening to kill all the hostages if they could not be met. Naturally, the Israeli side will not agree to the conditions put forward by the terrorists.
After initial negotiations were fruitless, the plane, which had been in Benghazi for seven hours, suddenly and forcibly took off while refueling, this time to Uganda's Entebbe airport, and arrived at its destination at 03:15 the next morning.
The terrorists wanted to send the plane to Uganda because Amin, Uganda's cannibalist at the time, was supportive of the hijacking. Amin supported it because in the previous war between Uganda and Kenya, the then Israeli Prime Minister, Mrs. Meir, rejected Amin's request for Israeli fighter jets to attack Kenya.
After the plane landed, the Jews were detained in the old terminal of the airport, and ugandan dictator Amin personally visited the hostages three times and falsely said that he would ensure the safety of the hostages. On June 29, Amin proposed to 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) at Entebbe airport
In order to delay time and gain more preparation time, then Israeli Defense Minister Peres pretended to help Amin apply for the Nobel Peace Prize, and successfully adjusted the deadline to July 4.
At the same time, in order to show their posture, the terrorists, with the assistance of Amin, released all non-Israeli passengers, while the remaining 105 Jews continued to be detained.
The flight's captain, Michel Bacco, was said not to have agreed to leave at the time, saying that he wanted to be with his passengers to protect their safety, and a French nun also refused to leave and insisted that he be exchanged for a Jew, but their courageous actions were rejected. Greetings, two ordinary and great people!
Captain Michelle Bacco of Flight 139
Who are the hijackers?
There were 10 hijackers, 8 of whom were members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the other two members of the German terrorist organization Badr-Mainhof, which also had a familiar name: the Red Army Brigade. The leader of these hijackers was the German Wilfred Bozer, not the infamous "Jackal Carlos" previously speculated.
The reason why the two were able to conspire to hijack the plane was because they hated the Jews.
Never yield to terrorists and Israel's response
Less than 10 minutes after the loss of contact, flight 139 was judged to be a hijacking incident by israel's famous Mossad, and the collection and processing of relevant intelligence data was immediately launched, which in a short period of time clarified the purpose of the hijackers and bought a lot of maneuver time for the subsequent operation.
In response to the conditions put forward by the hijackers, the Israeli side quickly developed a response strategy.
Ostensibly, Israel says it is seriously considering the demands of the hijackers. Secretly, plans to rescue the hostages by force were soon launched.
Israeli Prime Minister Rabin
The reason for the use of force was because the then Israeli Prime Minister Abbey Rabin believed that compromise with the terrorists would only allow them to carry out more terrorist acts in the future, and that their illusions must be eliminated by force in order to ensure Israel's security! Give Rabin a thumbs up here!
As a result, the Israeli army and intelligence agency, the Mossad, developed a careful and detailed plan of action.
Once such a rescue operation fails, the cost is quite enormous, and the angry terrorists are likely to take hostages and kill them.
Therefore, the rescue operation can only succeed and cannot fail, and the rescue plan must be foolproof.
Of course, in addition to Israel, other countries concerned have demanded that Israel meet the conditions of the hijackers and strive for the release of the hostages, but Israel will obviously not agree.
Code-named "Operation Raiden", the meticulous and detailed rescue plan is almost seamless
On the one hand, the Israeli side, through the designer of the Entebbe airport (which happens to be an Israeli company, it is really fate), called up the design of the airport, and at the same time used the Us reconnaissance satellite to get a clear picture of the situation of the airport.
The hostages are being held by terrorists in the old terminal building opposite the airport
Not to mention, the Mossad also sent agents disguised as cleaners at Uganda's Entebbe airport, hiding the camera on a mop, and even more the layout of the airport, the location of the hostages, the situation and location of terrorists and Ugandan military personnel, and the location were clear, providing great convenience for the success of the Israeli military operation.
According to intelligence, the hostages were on the top floor of the terminal, Ugandan soldiers were on the second floor, and terrorists were scattered on the first, second and top floors.
Model of Entebbe Airport
Using the intelligence information they had, they made a model that was almost identical to the Entebbe airport, and even the number of steps was not bad, in order to be foolproof.
Hand-drawn maps and offensive lines
After the action plan was formulated, it was also rehearsed repeatedly to correct every detail that might cause a problem.
The concrete course of action shows the thoughtfulness of the Israelis.
The route map of the rescue operation is simple, that is, to pretend to be Ugandan President Amin to visit the hostages at the airport, use his identity to break into the airport, control the terminal, eliminate terrorists, and then rescue the hostages.
A Mercedes-Benz disguised as President Amin's car drove into the transport plane
To pretend, you have to pretend. They carefully studied the patterns of Amin's travels, the personnel and equipment, especially the accompanying vehicles. Amin liked Mercedes-Benz jeeps, and Israel recruited a Mercedes-Benz jeep owned by an Israeli and a mercedes-benz jeep of the same model as Amin, and painted the same color as black, while equipped with the exact same number of jeeps, all of which were operated with the commandos with the transport aircraft.
Of course, there is also a fake Amin, this is a good solution, Mossad found a black man who is almost similar to Amin to impersonate, the effect is still very good.
Crisply Liso's raid, the hostages were perfectly rescued
In the early morning of July 3, 1976, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin approved the rescue plan, code-named "Operation Thunder", and implemented it immediately.
The commander-in-chief of the rescue operation was Brigadier General Shom, commander of the Israeli Special Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Heim Oran, deputy, and Lieutenant Colonel Wernay, the reconnaissance captain of the Parachute Brigade. The commando team is led by Lieutenant Colonel Jonatan Netanyahu, the brother of the current Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the commander of the Reconnaissance Battalion of the General Staff of the Israeli Special Forces (Wild Boy Special Forces).
Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the rescue plan began to enter the substantive operational phase. Four C-130 Hercules transport aircraft carrying 280 Israeli commandos and combat equipment accompanied by two Boeing 707 aircraft prepared for command and logistics support, four F4 Ghost fighter jets escorted, and one aircraft carrying medical equipment.
Israeli F-4E Phantom fighter
The operation was unprecedented for Israel, first of all, a long-distance attack of 4,000 kilometers, which itself faced many unknown dangers; on the other hand, many countries passing through the air were hostile to Israel, and in case of unpredictable events, the trouble would be great.
In order to ensure the safety of the flight and the suddenness of the action, Israel also contacted Uganda's old rival Kenya, and an accompanying air force aircraft carrying medical equipment landed at The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Kenya.
After an 8-hour flight, the Israeli Air Force aircraft formation flew over several hostile countries, flew ultra-low-altitude around the Ugandan Air Force radar over the airport, and took the way of closing the radar blind landing, and successfully landed at Entebbe International Airport in the night at 23:45 Ugandan time on July 3, 1976.
I saw the black Mercedes-Benz car that had been prepared in advance slide out of the tail of the transport aircraft and immediately headed for the terminal.
Unfortunately, when the commandos were 200 meters away from the terminal, two Ugandan sentries came out of the darkness and found the Israeli convoy, and the Israelis immediately killed the enemy and launched a full-scale attack on the terminal.
Unfortunately, the commando commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jonatan Netanyahu, was hit by a bullet and fell to the ground during the attack, but because he had asked the commandos in advance not to take care of the wounded during the attack and must carry out the rescue operation with all their might, no one stopped to rescue The shot Lieutenant Colonel Jonatan Netanyahu, who was unfortunately killed.
After engaging the defenders, the Israeli commandos made it to the top floor of the terminal where the hostages were being held.
But at this time, the situation at the top is very complicated, and the terrorists who have been awakened are mixed in the hostages, and it is not easy to distinguish. This is difficult to defeat the Israeli commandos, only to listen to a cry of "lying down", those Jewish hostages almost at the same time fell to the ground, only those terrorists are still standing stupidly, at this time the commandos did not hesitate to raise the Uzi submachine gun to strafe, the terrorists were all killed, the average number of terrorists killed was more than 70 shots per person. It turned out that the commandos were shouting in Hebrew, which only Jews could understand, and the terrorists did not know what was being said.
Unfortunately, during the killing of the terrorists, three hostages were unfortunately killed by mistake, one of whom was killed as a terrorist because he suddenly stood up again, and the other two were injured by a jumping bullet and died.
Israeli special forces rushing into the terminal
Soon, the Israeli commandos eliminated all 45 Ugandan soldiers and terrorists from the airport, and blew up 5 MiG-21 and 4 MiG-17 fighter jets at the airport before leaving, which was the entire home of the Ugandan Air Force, which also created conditions for the smooth evacuation of the commandos.
The entire operation took less than an hour, just a short 53 minutes.
The rescued hostages were placed on a transport plane and returned to Israel smoothly, and the Israelis created a historic breakthrough in the rescue of the hostages, after which no one dared to hijack the Israeli aircraft.
A MiG fighter of the Ugandan Air Force blown up by Israeli "wild boys"
It should be pointed out here that the commando commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, was an amazing fighter and the only one in the commando team to die in this operation! If it were not for this accidental bullet death, the achievements thereafter are unlimited.
Lieutenant Colonel Netanyahu was the only one killed in the battle
It is said that after learning that Israel successfully rescued the hostages, ugandan dictator Amin was furious, 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 beautiful job!
Freed hostages
After the hostage incident was resolved, a 75-year-old American hostage, Dora Bloch, was temporarily released by terrorists after choking on his previous meal and was treated in a hospital in Kampala, 22 kilometers from the airport, and later killed in retaliation by Ugandan dictator Amin.
The soldiers who had committed suicide by mistake were convicted of indirect murder by an Israeli military tribunal, stripped of their military ranks and never hired.
The thrilling process and almost perfect ending of Israel's successful rescue of the hostages shocked the whole world, and Israel, a small country and a widow, once again impressed the world!
The hostage incident was perfectly resolved, and Israel explained to the world with its resolute actions what it was: those who commit crimes against Israel will be punished from afar!
It's useless to talk more, just do it!
Ugandan dictator Amin was later overthrown by Tanzania in the Utan War and fled to Saudi Arabia, where he died on August 16, 2003.