Escape at Entebbe

Even as a hail of memorial functions and tributes are held in the city marking one year of 26/11, it is an apt time to recount the aweu2013inspiring Operation Entebbe.

Escape at Entebbe

Even as a hail of memorial functions and tributes are held in the city marking one year of 26/11, it is an apt time to recount the aweu2013inspiring Operation Entebbe. While people are familiar with Operation Wrath of God, a systematic and deadly revenge plan by Israel after Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, relatively little is known about Operation Entebbe, or Escape at Entebbe or Operation Thunderbolt as it is called on June 27, 1976, An Air France flight from Tel Aviv (Israel) to Paris was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists from Germany's Revolutionary Cell. The plane landed at Entebbe airport in Uganda. At that time, dictator Idi Amin was the president of Uganda.

More than 100 people including the Air France crew was held hostage at the airport terminal for more than a week, as terrorists negotiated with Israel for the release of prisoners lodged in Israeli jails.

Meanwhile, Israel was planning an audacious rescue operation that would involve taking on not just the terrorists but the Ugandan armed forces as well.

After days of planning, four Israel Air Force transport aircraft flew secretly to Entebbe airport, by night. A 29-man commando assault unit was to rescue the hostages from the terminal.u00a0

According to Internet accounts, the Israeli forces landed at Entebbe with their cargo bay doors open. Land Rovers and a black Mercedes were taken along to give the impression that the Israeli troops driving from the landed aircraft to the terminal building were an escort for Amin returning from a trip.u00a0

The Israeli force ran towards the terminal into the main hall where the hostages were and raided it. Four hostages were killed, (three on the ground, one later, in an Ugandan hospital by an enraged Amin.) All the others were rescued. All the hijackers were killed. Approximately 40 Ugandan soldiers and one Israeli soldier were killed during the raid While this is just a bare bones account of what happened, it proves that the Israel response was what the Indian police say there should be in case of a terrorist attack: a systematic, calibrated response with a definite chain of command. The time has come to fight not with flowers and candles, but operations that strike like thunderbolts into the heart of terror.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

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