{"id":4645018,"date":"2026-07-09T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=4645018"},"modified":"2026-09-04T09:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T07:17:27","slug":"entebbe-raid-1976-rescue-operation-thunderbolt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/entebbe-raid-1976-rescue-operation-thunderbolt\/","title":{"rendered":"Entebbe: 4.000 chilometri per liberare gli ostaggi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color 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They had been separated \u2014 Israelis and Jews to one side, everyone else told they could go. The arithmetic of that selection told them exactly what was coming.<\/p>\r\n<p>What they did not know was that, on the night of 3 July, four Israeli Hercules transports were already flying south through the dark towards them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f5f5f5; padding: 20px 24px; margin: 24px 0; border-radius: 8px;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 12px; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px; color: #333;\">Quick Facts<\/p>\r\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 15px;\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Operation<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0; color: #333;\">Thunderbolt \u2014 the rescue at Entebbe, Uganda<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Night of<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0; color: #333;\">3\u20134 July 1976<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Trigger<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0; color: #333;\">Hijacking of Air France Flight 139 by PFLP and German Revolutionary Cells terrorists, aided by Idi Amin<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>The flight<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0; color: #333;\">Four C-130 Hercules flew roughly 4,000 km each way, largely at low level<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Result<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0; color: #333;\">Over 100 hostages rescued; the assault took about 53 minutes on the ground<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Cost<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0; color: #333;\">Three hostages killed in the raid and a fourth, Dora Bloch, murdered afterward; one Israeli soldier killed \u2014 the commander, Yoni Netanyahu<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">One Hundred Hostages, Four Thousand Kilometres<\/h2>\r\n<p>The Air France Airbus had been hijacked after a stop in Athens and flown, via Benghazi, to Entebbe \u2014 a deliberate choice, because Uganda\u2019s dictator Idi Amin welcomed the hijackers and lent them his soldiers. In the old terminal building the captors made their fatal error: they released the non-Jewish passengers and held the Israelis and Jews, a selection that echoed a darker history and hardened Israel\u2019s resolve to act.<\/p>\r\n<p>The problem was distance. Entebbe sat far beyond the reach of any conventional rescue, in hostile territory, guarded by Ugandan troops and a squadron of MiG fighters. Every planner who looked at the map concluded it could not be done. Israel decided to do it anyway.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin: 0 0 24px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 6px;\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/entebbe-airport-old-terminal-uganda.jpg\" alt=\"The old terminal at Entebbe Airport\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" \/>\r\n<figcaption style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #777; text-align: center; margin-top: 6px; font-style: italic;\">The old terminal at Entebbe, where the hostages were held for a week. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">The Longest Night Flight<\/h2>\r\n<p>Four C-130 Hercules lifted off from Israel and flew the length of the Red Sea and down over Africa, hugging the terrain to stay beneath radar, navigating the old-fashioned way. In the belly of the lead aircraft sat a black Mercedes and Land Rovers \u2014 a decoy motorcade meant to mimic Amin\u2019s own, to buy the assault force a few unchallenged seconds after landing.<\/p>\r\n<p>Leading the ground force was Lt. Col. Yonatan \u201cYoni\u201d Netanyahu. A commando who was there remembered how Netanyahu framed the stakes before they left.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f8f9fa; border-left: 4px solid #1565c0; padding: 20px 22px; margin: 18px 0 24px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7; display: flex; gap: 20px; align-items: flex-start;\">\r\n<div><em>\u201cIf we won\u2019t do it, nobody else will.\u201d<\/em>\r\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px; font-size: 14px; color: #555;\"><strong>Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu<\/strong> \u2014 Sayeret Matkal commander, as recalled by Gadi Ilan<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; margin: 24px 0;\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0; border-radius: 8px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LZrsBCLbmhs\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-no-lazy=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>Iddo Netanyahu, the commander\u2019s brother, recounts the planning and execution of the raid.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">Fifty-Three Minutes on the Ground<\/h2>\r\n<p>The Hercules touched down in darkness and the assault teams moved instantly on the terminal. For the hostages, the first sign of rescue was not a flag or an announcement but a language.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f8f9fa; border-left: 4px solid #5C91FF; padding: 20px 22px; margin: 18px 0 24px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7; display: flex; gap: 20px; align-items: flex-start;\">\r\n<div><em>\u201cAll of a sudden, they started hearing us shouting in Hebrew, directing them to keep lying down and telling them we had come to take them home.\u201d<\/em>\r\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px; font-size: 14px; color: #555;\"><strong>Gadi Ilan<\/strong> \u2014 Sayeret Matkal commando, aged 21 at Entebbe<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>Inside minutes the commandos had killed the hijackers and secured the hall. Outside, other teams destroyed roughly a dozen Ugandan MiGs on the ground to prevent pursuit and held off Ugandan soldiers. It was during that firefight, near the terminal, that Yoni Netanyahu was shot and killed \u2014 the only member of the assault force to die.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin: 0 0 24px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 6px;\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/idi-amin-uganda.jpg\" alt=\"Idi Amin\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" \/>\r\n<figcaption style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #777; text-align: center; margin-top: 6px; font-style: italic;\">Ugandan dictator Idi Amin gave the hijackers refuge and his soldiers\u2019 protection at Entebbe. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; margin: 24px 0;\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0; border-radius: 8px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HQExZE96Xgo\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-no-lazy=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>A revisiting of the rescue at Entebbe Airport and how the operation unfolded.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">The Cost and the Legend<\/h2>\r\n<p>The raid was not bloodless. Three hostages were killed in the crossfire, and a fourth \u2014 Dora Bloch, an elderly woman taken to a Kampala hospital before the raid \u2014 was murdered on Amin\u2019s orders in revenge. But more than a hundred people who had been counting down to their own execution walked back onto Israeli aircraft and flew home.<\/p>\r\n<p>Entebbe rewrote the rules. It proved that a democracy could reach across a continent to pull its citizens out of a dictator\u2019s hands, and it became the template every special-operations force has studied since. For Israelis it carried a private grief folded inside a national triumph: the one man they lost was the man who led them in. The mission is still remembered by the name it later took \u2014 Operation Yonatan, for the commander who did not come home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; margin: 24px 0;\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0; border-radius: 8px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PaDPDFb4Bd0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-no-lazy=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>A dramatisation of the raid produced in 1977, a year after the events.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>Sources: St. Louis Jewish Light; The Times of Israel; Jewish Virtual Library; Imperial War Museums.<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\r\n<!-- mf-faq -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-block\"><style>.mf-faq-block{margin:34px 0}.mf-faq-item:not([open]) .mf-faq-answer{display:none !important}.mf-faq-block h2.mf-faq-h{padding-top:22px;margin-bottom:14px}.mf-faq-item{border:1px solid #e2e8f5;border-radius:8px;margin:0 0 10px;background:#fff}.mf-faq-item summary{list-style:none;cursor:pointer;padding:15px 50px 15px 18px;font-weight:600;color:#1a1a1a;position:relative;line-height:1.45;user-select:none}.mf-faq-item summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mf-faq-item summary::after{content:\"+\";position:absolute;right:18px;top:50%;transform:translateY(-50%);font-size:1.5em;font-weight:400;color:#5C91FF;line-height:1}.mf-faq-item[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mf-faq-item[open] summary{border-bottom:1px solid #eef1f8}.mf-faq-item summary:hover{background:#f5f8ff}.mf-faq-answer{padding:14px 18px;color:#333;line-height:1.6}.mf-faq-answer p{margin:0}.mf-faq-answer a{color:#5C91FF}<\/style>\r\n<h2 class=\"mf-faq-h\">Related Questions<\/h2>\r\n<details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>What was the Entebbe raid?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>Operation Thunderbolt was Israel's rescue of hostages held at Entebbe airport in Uganda on the night of 3\u20134 July 1976. Four C-130 Hercules flew about 4,000 km each way; commandos stormed the terminal in roughly 53 minutes, freeing over 100 hostages taken after the hijacking of Air France Flight 139.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>Why were the hostages at Entebbe in Uganda?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>Air France Flight 139 was hijacked after a stop in Athens by PFLP and German Revolutionary Cells terrorists, then flown via Benghazi to Entebbe \u2014 because Uganda's dictator Idi Amin welcomed the hijackers and lent them his soldiers. The captors then separated Israeli and Jewish passengers from the rest.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>How far did Israel fly to reach Entebbe?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>The four C-130 Hercules transports flew roughly 4,000 kilometres each way, much of it at low level to avoid radar, into hostile territory guarded by Ugandan troops and MiG fighters. That distance was why nearly every planner first judged a rescue impossible.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>How many hostages were rescued at Entebbe?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>More than 100 hostages were rescued. Three hostages died during the raid and a fourth, Dora Bloch, was murdered afterward. One Israeli soldier was killed: the assault commander, Lt. Col. Yonatan \"Yoni\" Netanyahu.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>Who died during the Entebbe raid?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>Three hostages were killed in the assault, and a fourth, Dora Bloch, was murdered later in a Ugandan hospital. The only Israeli soldier killed was the mission commander, Lt. Col. Yonatan \"Yoni\" Netanyahu, elder brother of Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>What aircraft carried out the Entebbe rescue?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>The force used four C-130 Hercules transports to carry commandos, vehicles and equipment 4,000 km to Uganda and back. The rugged Hercules airframe has filled countless military roles, including the heavily armed <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-ac-130-a-cargo-plane-with-more-guns-than-a-destroyer\/\">AC-130 gunship<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>How does Entebbe compare with other hostage rescue attempts?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>Entebbe succeeded where others failed. Four years later, the 1980 US attempt to rescue hostages in Iran, <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-eagle-claw-desert-one-1980\/\">Operation Eagle Claw<\/a>, ended in disaster at the \"Desert One\" staging site without the force ever reaching Tehran.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><\/div>\r\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the Entebbe raid?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Operation Thunderbolt was Israel's rescue of hostages held at Entebbe airport in Uganda on the night of 3\u20134 July 1976. 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Four years later, the 1980 US attempt to rescue hostages in Iran, <a href=\\\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-eagle-claw-desert-one-1980\/\\\">Operation Eagle Claw<\/a>, ended in disaster at the \\\"Desert One\\\" staging site without the force ever reaching Tehran.\"}}]}<\/script><!-- \/mf-faq -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f0f4ff; border-left: 4px solid #5C91FF; padding: 16px 20px; margin: 32px 0 8px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 8px; font-weight: 600; color: #333;\">Related Posts<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-opera-osirak-reactor-raid-1981\/\">Eight Jets That Erased a Nuclear Reactor<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this story For a week in the summer of 1976, more than a hundred people sat on the floor of a disused airport terminal in the heart of Africa, four thousand kilometres from home, and waited to find out whether they would be murdered. They had been separated \u2014 Israelis and Jews to one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":4644835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4645018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Entebbe Raid: Israel&#039;s Daring 1976 Rescue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1976 Israeli commandos flew 4,000 km to Entebbe in Uganda to rescue hijacked hostages, a stunning operation codenamed Thunderbolt.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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