Entebbe raid — 1976 counter-terrorist hostage rescue mission by the Israel Defense Forces
Israel's long-range hostage rescue at Entebbe set a benchmark for counter-terrorist military operations and demonstrated state capability to project force across continents.
Key Facts
- Hostages rescued
- 102 of 106
- Commandos deployed
- 100
- Distance flown
- 4,000 km
- Operation duration
- 90 minutes
- Israeli fatalities
- 1 (Yonatan Netanyahu)
- Ugandan MiGs destroyed
- 11
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
On 27 June 1976, two PFLP-EO and two German Revolutionary Cells members hijacked Air France Flight 139 with 248 passengers during a stopover in Athens, diverting it to Libya and then Uganda. The hijackers demanded the release of 40 Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons and 13 prisoners in four other countries, threatening to kill the 106 remaining hostages if their demands were not met.
On the night of 3–4 July 1976, roughly 100 Israeli commandos flew over 4,000 kilometres to Entebbe International Airport in Uganda. In a 90-minute assault, the commandos stormed the terminal where hostages were held, killed all the hijackers and 45 Ugandan soldiers, and rescued 102 of the 106 hostages. The Israeli force destroyed 11 Ugandan MiG aircraft and evacuated the rescued hostages to Kenya before returning to Israel.
Three hostages died during the raid; a fourth, Dora Bloch, was subsequently murdered by Ugandan authorities in Kampala. Yonatan Netanyahu, the operation's field commander, was the sole Israeli military fatality. Idi Amin retaliated by ordering the killing of Kenyans in Uganda, resulting in the deaths of approximately 245 Kenyan-Ugandans and the expulsion of around 3,000 Kenyans from the country.