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The IDF published a rare interview with Entebbe fighters, filmed a decade after the operation | Israel Today

2022-07-04T13:23:30.658Z


"I said: either it will be the IDF's biggest failure, or it will be the IDF's biggest success" • "I never believed in the possibility of predicting the future, but Yoni Netanyahu said goodbye to us as if he knew where he was going" • " It's hard to share with people who have not been there, and with people who have been there you do not have to show it externally, the feeling is clear "• Operation Entebbe fighters tell


46 years since Operation Entebbe: The IDF archives at the Ministry of Defense published a video taken on the occasion of a decade since the heroic operation, in which General Staff patrol fighters describe the moments of tension in their voices and blurred faces.

Operation Entebbe, also known as "Operation Jonathan" in the name of the commander of the killed General Staff patrol, the late Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu, took place on July 4, 1976. Four Hercules planes on which General Staff patrol fighters and other fighters landed in Entebbe, Uganda , With the aim of rescuing 105 Jewish and Israeli passengers, and the crew of an Air France plane, which were hijacked by German and Palestinian terrorists during their flight from Israel to France.

The vast majority of the hostages were rescued safely, with the exception of three hostages killed in the operation.

Receiving the hostages in Operation Entebbe, Photo: IDF Archives at the Ministry of Defense

"I arrived with my vehicle at the base. One of the crew stood there at the gate and announced: 'Guys, we are the jumping squad'. Then there are butterflies in the stomach that start to jump in all directions," said one of the fighters.

"I remember saying to Hillel, 'How can you do such an operation?' And he said, 'It really is unbelievable.' It's interesting that when I said that, I did not think I would be the failure of the IDF.

I had such a literary failure, "said another fighter." What you think is that you must save them.

It is necessary not only because you were told you were a soldier, but because it is your people, it is your history. "

"I was waiting to see monkeys and coconuts"

According to one of the fighters in the film, "What sat in my head all the time, both in the operation and now, is what was in the Savoy Hotel where as soon as the shootings started, part of the building collapsed on us and a soldier was killed. Personally, for me, my good friend Itamar fell in the hotel." "Savoy." It's a trauma that stays and goes on, and here we are again in a similar situation. "

"All the time I was thinking about what I should do. I kept checking the light I had on the Kalashnikov, to check that it did not come out of reset. It bothered me, because it was very crowded and I kept getting beaten up with weapons, and things moved there, and I was afraid the light would not "Reset, because all you see is where you shoot, what the flashlight indicates," repeated a fighter.

Release of the hostages and reception, Operation Entebbe, Photo: Courtesy of the IDF Archives at the Ministry of Defense

"I never believed in the possibility of predicting the future. Even today I do not believe. But the parting of Yoni (Netanyahu) was like that of someone who knows what he is going for. He passed between all the soldiers on the plane. He also reached our car, which was inside the plane. "He passed and shook hands with all the soldiers. After a few minutes, the plane touched the ground and the operation began."

According to one of the warriors, "It was clear to me that this is a different world, Africa, the equator. I do not know, I was waiting to see monkeys, lions, coconuts. I do not know what all my imaginations were about Africa. We landed - and nothing. The door opens, the route is lit. , Quiet, looks like a lane in Lod, exactly the same. We started driving, the Mercedes drives first, followed by Jeep No. 1, Jeep No. 2. Driving slowly. We saw in the distance the control tower. We saw the terminal, which was lit. I was sitting inside. The Mercedes, she stopped, we got out, jumped out of the car, started running.

"At this point I was one hundred percent convinced that he was already inside the building and that I was leaving him alone there. Then I was not interested in anything, I forgot everything and did not look at all what others were doing, nothing, I started running like crazy into the building.

One of the planes that participated in Operation Entebbe, Photo: Moshe Milner, GPO

"I went into a room that was next to the hostages 'room, and we hit three terrorists there. I tried to hear where the hostages were. There was a very thin partition of plywood between us, between the room I was in and the hostages' room. We heard nothing. I remember telling the people who passed them. Map of the new terminal. Operation failed. "

According to another fighter, "I saw the glass shatter, and I realized someone was shooting at me. I did not hear the shots. It's amazing, but I was so focused I did not hear the shots. I saw the glass shattered, I glanced, I saw inside the building that everyone was lying there. I saw Ben A man with a Kalashnikov is lying and shooting in my direction. Automatically, instinctively, I shot him four or five bullets through the glass. I saw his head fall. I jumped in quickly, the door was open, I went in quickly and then quickly looked to the right, to see how far Amnon had already pulled. We said that whoever entered, broke in the furthest distance to allow others to stand by the wall. I looked to the right, and saw that no one was near the wall, and only then did I realize that I had entered the building first. The ones who actually killed everyone. "

Some of the fighters who participated in Operation Entebbe, Photo: Courtesy of Shlomo Gal and the Rabin Center

"Is there a plane?"

"I could barely get a word out of my mouth, luckily it was a megaphone. I shouted: 'Everyone lie down!', Something like that, also in English. I do not remember exactly what we shouted, but we shouted so that they would understand that they were coming to save them. "Release you, 'they will come out of the shock very quickly," described one of the fighters.

"They (the kidnappers, L.S.) were lying on the mattresses.

It was a hot night, but everyone was covered in blankets out of some instinct.

Obviously a blanket does not stop a ball.

Slowly heads began to appear under the blankets ... Slowly they realized that they were not coming to kill them, coming to save them.

"There were people out there who didn't know what was going on with them at all. You come to someone and tell them to put on shoes and go to the doorway, and he puts the shoes on his hands and starts walking on all fours in the direction of the doorway.

"While shooting, a six-year-old boy got up and started shouting: 'Mom, what a beauty, what a beauty!'. Why? Because mattresses were lit there and there was some fire and action. 'Mom, what a beauty.'

The abductees from Operation Entebbe return home, Photo: Moshe Milner, GPO

"I remember a passage with a kidnapper, an older man, asking me, 'Is there a plane?'. I tell him, 'Do you want to walk? It's far.'

"When I got out of the building, it was the first time I saw the hostages. They were gathered on the track. It was a dark night. By this time the lighting in the terminal was already off. I saw a very crowded group of people standing. We put them on our vehicles and evacuated them. We need to understand. The situation. We realized we did something really very beautiful, well done to us. Something like Beirut, I know what. Like the raid on Tripoli. So we did not imagine it would have such an echo. 

"It's something you can't share, and it's hard to share with people who haven't participated. When you share it with people who have participated, you don't have to show it externally, the feeling is clear."

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Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2022-07-04

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