On the night of 3 July 1976, Israeli Mossad agents formed a rescue detachment to raid Uganda's Ende airport and rescue 103 hostages from hijackers, and Uganda paid a heavy price: 45 soldiers were killed and 22 MiGs were destroyed. The rescue was listed as one of the top ten news stories in the world.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, Air France Flight 139 was hijacked</h1>
On the morning of June 27, 1976, Air France's 139 flight, Airbus, carrying 245 passengers, took off as usual from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, via Athens, Greece, to Paris. After landing in Athens, the plane dropped off 59 passengers and 56 new passengers and flew away from Athens at noon. But shortly after takeoff, around the skies over the Apennine Peninsula, the plane lost contact with the ground. Greece's air traffic controllers have not paid much attention to this, and Israel's special intelligence agencies have detected that the aircraft has interrupted telecommunications and quickly made a judgment that the destination of 139 flights is unknown.
On this day, the Israeli Government is convening a cabinet meeting. At about 1.30 p.m., the Cabinet meeting received a report: "Airbus Flight 139, which took off from Ben Gurion Airport before 9 a.m. this morning, may have crashed or been hijacked, with many Israelis on board." The report was handed over to Prime Minister Rabin by Transport Minister Jacobi a few minutes after Airbus lost contact.
Countermeasures were discussed at the Cabinet meeting. At 3:30 p.m., an emergency command headed by Prime Minister Rabin was established. Prime Minister Rabin analyzed: There were nearly a hundred Jews on the hijacked plane, and the hijackers may use it as a hostage to exert pressure on Israel. In the evening, the emergency command received several more pieces of information.
The first intelligence said that "Airbus" had landed at the Airport in Benghazi in Libya, which was the first stop.
The second intelligence stated that the hijacking of the aircraft was commanded by the radical Palestinian guerrillas, Dr. Wadea Habiand of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Without much effort, new information came from London about the hijackers. A 30-year-old pregnant woman named Heyman, who was nearing her due date and was in danger of having a premature birth, flew back to London by Libya after her release from Benghazi with the consent of the hijackers. According to Mrs. Heyman, about 5 minutes after Flight 139 took off from Athens, it was hijacked by three people who were hiding weapons and had just boarded the plane. One of them, one of them, looked German, and the other was presumably Arab. They placed explosives disguised as canned dates at the entrance of the plane. The hijacked plane landed in Benghazi just to refuel, and the final destination seemed to be to go to a country in central Africa. It seems that this is a well-planned hijacking operation.
At 3 a.m. on June 28, Defense Minister Perez received another intelligence that Flight 139 had landed at Entebbe Airport in Kampala, Uganda's capital.
On this day, the members of the emergency command headed by Prime Minister Rabin were full of sorrow. Because they received two pieces of information: one was that Ugandan President Amin led a heavily armed Palestinian guerrilla force to the hostages at Entebbe airport and claimed to act as a mediator between the hijackers and Israel, and the other was that the released Mrs. Heyman said that in "Airbus", Jews and other ethnic passengers had been separated.
There is a shop on the outskirts of the capital Tel Aviv owned by retired Army Colonel Barev. He served as head of the Israeli Military Advisory Corps of more than 400 people in Uganda. The Emergency Command secretly entrusted the colonel to call his old friend, President Amin, to learn about Amin's attitude toward the hijacking, while deliberately delaying with him in order to buy time. This attempt to deceive by telephone, conceived by the emergency command, was successful and gained time.
On 29 June, Radio Uganda broadcast guerrilla demands for the release of 53 terrorists held in various countries. Of these, 40 are detained in Israel. On 30 June, the Israeli government received a report that the guerrillas, following their demands for the release of the terrorists, declared: "If there is no reply by 2 p.m. Israel time on 1 July, kill the hostages and blow up the aircraft." ”
This has put the Government of Israel in a situation where it hastens to make a hasty decision. However, this afternoon the guerrillas suddenly announced: "The release of 47 non-Jewish passengers, including women, children and the elderly." "The released passengers arrived in Paris late that night. According to the released passengers, Amin's true intentions as a mediator were questionable, and the Jews were gathered in another room, and they were nothing more than partisan bargaining material. The incident spread throughout Israel in an immediate manner, uniting the Israeli people in the face of acts of terror.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs appealed to the heads of state of the world's leading countries and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Waldheim, that they propose to the Government of Uganda that President Amin persuade the guerrillas to seek a humanitarian solution to the hijacking.
At 7:15 a.m. on 1 July, the Emergency Command held a meeting at the Prime Minister's residence. In view of the lack of progress in persuading President Amin, the very dangerous situation of the hostages and the absence of alternatives, it was decided to inform the hijackers that the Government had agreed in principle to the holding of negotiations and was ready to promise to release the terrorists detained in Israel.
At 1 p.m., Uganda Radio radioed that "the guerrillas have unilaterally extended the deadline for a final response by 72 hours to 2 p.m. on the 4th." ”
At 2.15 p.m. on the same day. News of a further release of 101 hostages was reported on Uganda Radio. As a result, only 94 passengers (61 of them Israelis) and 12 crew members were taken hostage in Entebbe. It is becoming increasingly clear that the guerrillas are coming to Israel.
Prime Minister Rabin later said: "Thursday is the most dangerous day. Faced with the strong demands of the families for the release of the terrorists and the fact that the deadline for the deadline proposed by the guerrillas — 2 p.m. — was approaching, I must make clear that I did not intend to take military action. On the other hand, the lack of accurate information at that time and the lack of formation and drilling of troops, the lack of certainty of operational success and the lack of confidence in taking military action were also one of the reasons for striving for a peaceful settlement. ”
Prime Minister Rabin has always had hope for a peaceful solution in his heart. However, after 2 July, the main purpose of intelligence gathering has shifted to military operations.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, rescue plan</h1>
From the early days of the hijacking of the aircraft, the Ministry of Defense has studied the possibility of rescuing hostages through military operations. Moreover, Plan B has begun to brew at an air base 100 kilometers south of Tel Aviv.
At this base, the commander of the attack force, Brigadier General Dayu Shomron, has begun to study the military plan to attack the Entebbe airfield and rescue the hostages.
They have developed several options and submitted them to the Emergency Command. However, Shomlong himself, in order to keep the secret of this battle, tried his best to pretend to be indifferent. On the evening of June 29, he attended the wedding reception of the daughter of a colonel in the former airborne unit. And talk and laugh at the meeting.
Contacts with the hijackers were the responsibility of the Israeli garrison in Somalia, which had travelled to Kampala, uganda' capital. His report was sent back to his country through the Israeli Embassy in France. The work of intelligence gathering is entirely the responsibility of the Israeli intelligence agencies.
On 1 July, intelligence officers from The Mossad, Israel's secret intelligence apparatus disguised as traders, flew el al-Israel airlines to Nairobi, Uganda's neighbouring Kenya, where some of them began secret contact with the Nairobi police chief and the other by land. Meanwhile, the Chief of the General Staff, Gul, on the instructions of Minister of Defence Peres, made a final revision to the battalion's plans to be held hostage and decided to carry out the attack late Saturday night.
When formulating the plan to take hostages after the plane landed, the question was: What was the true intention of the guerrillas? To what extent did the Ugandan army and President Amin help the guerrillas? According to intelligence, if the guerrillas did not execute hostages after the deadline for replying, the Ugandan army would also carry out executions. This seems certain.
Prime Minister Rabin had assumed that President Amin was acting to enhance his authority and national prestige and was not expected to be hostage-taking. But Rabin's glimmer of hope was dashed.
In this way, the rescue plan and preparation work were completed on the afternoon of the 2nd. That night, field drills were conducted in the desert base.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, attack detachment</h1>
On the morning of 3 July, as the midsummer sun rose in the east, the participants in the battle, dressed in civilian clothes, either by bus or by car, came in pairs to the air base near Sharm El Sheikh, the secret platform site.
A black Mercedes-Benz sedan is on standby in the hangar. This is a white "Mercedes" that was found after searching through Israel, and the team members painted it black. In this way, it is exactly the same as the black "Mercedes" that President Amin loves to sit on. In the same hangar, a female reserve soldier, a makeup artist at the television station, was looking at a picture of President Amin while turning a soldier of Amin's body into a black man. However, whether to use a fake President Amin in combat will have to wait until the start of the attack operation. The commander of the rescue detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Tanyaf and his men, were excellent marksmen, and they all disguised themselves as blacks.
The planning of the General Staff has entered the final stages. The final mobilization began. Lieutenant Colonel Netanyaf stood in front of a large schematic map of Entebbe Airport, centered on the old terminal where the hostages were held, briefed the attackers on the situation and showed them one by one pictures of the hijackers. "Success or failure depends on a matter of seconds, and we have to do everything we can to find the hostages, eliminate the hijackers, and don't let them fire a shot," he stressed. ”
Given that Ugandan soldiers had been friends and students of Israel's military advisory corps in the past, Lieutenant Colonel Netanyav also instructed soldiers to "not inflict unnecessary killings." Then, 280 raiders lined up in front of Brigadier General Shomlong and listened intently to his instructions. He encouraged the fireman and said, "I must complete the task and wish you success." ”
Defense Minister Perez praised the plan as: the farthest distance ever, the shortest time ever, and the boldest operation ever.
On the afternoon of 3 July, an emergency cabinet meeting was convened. This day is Israel's Sabbath. Prime Minister Rabin demanded the approval of military merit by all cabinet members and declared that if unsuccessful, the Prime Minister alone would be held responsible. The Cabinet members stated their final views and had a lively discussion. At 3.10 p.m., 20 minutes before the decision of the Cabinet meeting, the attacking forces marched from the air base on the outskirts of Sharm el-Sheikh to Uganda. According to prior instructions, the troops withdraw if they do not receive a notification from the Cabinet of ministers to make a resolution. At 3:30 p.m., the Cabinet meeting ended, and Prime Minister Rabin issued a formal order for the troops to "urgently dispatch" in accordance with the Cabinet resolution.
Four Hercules aircraft had flown out of the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula when they received the order to fight. The formation flew toward Uganda.
The formation turned left into Ethiopian airspace, continued south through the densely forested mountainous terrain, and passed over Nairobi. The four Hercules were only 800 meters from the airport, and Entebbe was still silent, as if nothing had happened. The skies over Lake Victoria are covered with thick fog, and the direction of Entebbe has cleared.
In the terminal building of Entebbe Airport, people celebrated their sixth night, exhausted one by one. Many people probably have diarrhea because of improper diet. There was no water in the toilet to rinse, and feces were flowing all over the floor.
At 5 p.m. that day, President Amin arrived at the airport. He told the hostages: "We have tried our best to save everyone's lives. The problem lies with the Israeli government. ”
At this time, a german man and woman were guarding the door, Gabel and another Palestinian were patrolling the hall, and a Palestinian with a "beret" hat was stubbornly guarded on the north side of the terminal. In this atmosphere of majesty, an Egyptian doctor and a guerrilla were laughing leisurely. Most of the hostages were lying exhausted, with only a few people playing poker.
In The Hercules No. 1, Lieutenant Colonel Netanyaf, disguised as a black man, and nine of his men sat in the Mercedes, waiting for the attack at the exit at the rear of the aircraft. Because he learned that President Amin had returned to China, he decided not to impersonate President Amin again.
Hercules No. 1 began shouting to the command tower: "We have brought the terrorists who have been released and asked for permission to land." "In order to control the roar of the engine as much as possible, the pitch of the propeller was not changed when landing. With a "bang—" sound, the plane landed on the ground and began to taxi. In order to prevent it from being illuminated by searchlights, Machine 1 drove out of the old runway and taxied towards the old waiting plane. Subsequently, The No. 2 aircraft also entered the runway in a posture that could be returned to flight urgently at any time. Plane 3 also landed on the new runway.
After Entering the tarmac in front of the old terminal, Machine 1 stopped quietly. The airfield was still calm, and the guards did not feel unusual.
Machine 1 opened the rear compartment door, and a "Mercedes" sped out toward the guardhouse near the old command tower. The other members of the team followed out of the cabin and immediately dispersed in search of the guerrillas and hostages. The guards saw a black "Mercedes" and, not knowing what was going on, rushed to salute the Mercedes, but were immediately knocked down by a silent pistol. The makeup worked. In order to prevent them from being considered Ugandan soldiers after entering the building, Lieutenant Colonel Netania and his subordinates wiped the black ink off their faces and hands with Snowflake Qi, and took off their Ugandan shirts.
At this time, the command tower seemed to perceive that the situation was abnormal, and the entire airport was pitch black. The last Hercules, due to its training, landed on the new runway in the dark.
The German Berze stood outside the plane, but at first did not notice the arrival of the attackers. When he realized that something was wrong, the moment he turned to take the gun, there was a "bang" of a gunshot, and Bertze fell down in response. This was the shot fired by the attackers at the moment of a thousand shots.
At the same time, one of the raiders ran to Deman, a German woman standing at the door, and shot her down. The team shouted in Hebrew, "Lie down! Lie down! "Rushed into the building. Two guerrillas in the hall fired in a panic with automatic rifles and pistols, but were immediately knocked down by rain-like bullets from the attackers.
One of the hostages was a 56-year-old woman named Polojo Beach, who was hit by a stray bullet and bled to death. The bullet had been fired by the guerrillas a few seconds earlier.
The hostages were in a state of panic, and some thought it was the guerrillas who had begun to execute them. However, this uneasy mood followed. "Israel! Israel! The shouts disappeared. Maimoni, a 19-year-old, moved to Israel from the United States five years ago. He heard the shouting, and just as he was about to stand up, he was hit by the bullet of the Israeli army and died immediately. During these 6 days, Maimoni gave people coffee every day, took care of the sick number, and was a good young man who loved to help people. The hall's inspection lasted only 45 seconds before it ended.
Lieutenant Colonel Netanyav and his men climbed upstairs to search for the remnants of the enemy, and found two guerrillas from the toilet and killed them on the spot. Another guerrilla on the north side of the terminal was also killed in a confrontation. The attacking forces killed a total of 7 guerrillas, of whom it was estimated that 10 were.
The ambulance team quickly carried the 5 injured hostages and 4 soldiers out and sent them to the treatment table of Aircraft 2.
The fighting on the airfield entered the second phase. The Ugandan defenders began to counterattack, firing more intensely from the command tower. A group of men and horses led by Lieutenant Colonel Netanyav returned fire on the tower with anti-tank missiles and heavy machine guns in order to suppress the opposing fire. Suddenly, someone shouted, "Nanni is injured!" Ninnie was shot in the back, blood gushing out, and he tried to stand up, but fell down again.
During the attack, none of the 4 Hercules turned off their engines and were escorted by more than a dozen team members.
On the tarmac of the new runway of the airport, the destruction squad blew up the MiG fighters one by one. Red flames soared into the sky, illuminating the midsummer night sky. Another group of team members attacked the airport radar and planted explosives. However, the members of these sabotage detachments did not forget to dismantle the Soviet-made device and bring it back before the explosion. The cover detachment, in jeeps and armored vehicles equipped with seatless guns, blocked and annihilated Ugandan troops reinforcing from the direction of Kampala at the main entrance of the airfield. In addition, the team members took pictures of the 7 guerrillas who were killed and fingerprinted them as evidence. Then, carry them on the plane.
1 of the 4 Hercules only had enough fuel to fly for 80 minutes. But the constant fires and explosions at the airport are dangerous to refuel here. Therefore, it was decided not to refuel for the time being and fly back to Nairobi (it takes 50 minutes to get to Nairobi).
From the beginning of the attack, after 53 minutes, Aircraft 2, carrying hostages and braving the light rain that had just started, took off first. At this time, at the presidential residence, only 4 kilometers from the airport, President Amin was still asleep, unaware of the attack.
At 2 a.m., President Amin, who was sleeping soundly at his official residence, was awakened by a ringing telephone call from Tel Aviv, Israel, by Colonel Barev. At this time, President Amin had not yet learned of the attack on the airport and the taking of hostages. Colonel Palev began to say, "Thank you very much for your many concerns. President Amin was completely confused and asked, "What do you mean by that?" But before Amin could finish speaking, the phone hung up.
At about 5 p.m. that day, President Amin called Colonel Bar-Lev again to condemn the ungrateful actions of the Israeli army in killing Ugandan soldiers and Israel. But in the end, Amin praised: "As a professional soldier, I think the attack was very successful!" Israeli special forces are really good! ”