40 Years Ago: Operation Thunderbolt!

rjpf1980

On 27 June 1976 Air France Flight 139 took off from Tel Aviv, Israel carrying 248 passengers and crew before flying to Athens where it picked up 58 more passengers including four hijackers. Shortly after take off for Paris the four terrorists, two Palestinian members of the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine and two German communists, a male and female member of the Revolutionary Cells allied with Red Army Faction or better known as the Baader-Meinhof gang seized control.

The plane was diverted to Benghazi, Libya where the sympathetic Gaddaffi regime allowed it to be refueled. A female passenger faked a miscarriage and was released. After refueling the plane flew on to Entebbe, Uganda which was ruled at the time by the mentally unstable dictator Idi Amin. Four other Palestinian terrorists joined their comrades and Ugandan troops guarded the airport while Idi Amin and the terrorists made demands.

As well as $5 million for the return of the aircraft the terrorists also demanded the release of 53 terrorists in Israeli custody or the hostages would be killed by 1 July. Through back channels such as President Sadat of Egypt and Yasser Arafat of the PLO the Israelis began negotiations with Amin and the terrorists which led to the extension of the deadline to July 4. Scores of hostages were released among them the elderly and women with children. The majority of the 106 hostages who remained were Israeli Jews while the crew and other sympathetic passengers chose to remain behind.

The Israeli government decided they had no intention of giving in to the terrorist's demands. Intelligence and military chiefs met and agreed upon the audacious Operation Thunderbolt. Bruce Mackenzie, the South African born Kenyan minister of Agriculture persuaded the Kenyan leader President Jomo Kenyatta to help Israel by allowing overflights and refueling of the fleet of Israeli C-130 Hercules transport planes the Israeli planned to use to fly 100 commandos 2,500 miles to Entebbe to assault the airport terminal and rescue the hostages. The Israelis interrogated the released hostages and the builders of the airport terminal who supplied them with vital intelligence.

The first Israeli Hercules planes landed just before midnight on 3 July. A Mercedes resembling Amin's official car and a convoy of jeeps carrying heavily armed Israelis drove toward the terminal. Two Ugandans were shot when they discovered the ruse and the assault teams stormed the terminal.

Shouting through megaphones that they were Israelis and for the hostages to stay down the soldiers burst inside and a shoot out erupted between them and the terrorists. A teenage hostage overjoyed at what was happening rose to his feet and was fatally shot. Two others a man and a woman were killed by the crossfire. 75 year old Dora Bloch who was in an Ugandan hospital was not in the terminal and was later shot by Ugandan troops by an enraged Amin. The terrorists were soon all shot and killed by the commandos including the two Germans terrorists, Wilifried Bose and his girlfriend Brigitte Kuhlmann.

The Israeli commandos loaded the 102 surviving hostages onto the Hercules planes while firing back at the aroused Ugandan military. Five Israelis were wounded and Yonaton Netanyahu, the brother of future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was killed. All the hijackers were killed plus about 30 to 40 Ugandan soldiers. To assist their escape the Israelis destroyed about a dozen Ugandan fighter planes parked on the tarmac and took off for Israel again flying under the radar and returned to Israel via Nairobi.

When the rescued hostages arrived in Israeli they were met by overjoyed relatives and politicians and the heroic soldiers were carried shoulder high.
The rescue stunned the world and enraged Palestinians and political hate groups around the world who hate the State of Israel and seek its destruction and the mass murder of the Jewish people.

DrumSteve

rjpf1980 wrote: »

On 27 June 1976 Air France Flight 139 took off from Tel Aviv, Israel carrying 248 passengers and crew before flying to Athens where it picked up 58 more passengers including four hijackers. Shortly after take off for Paris the four terrorists, two Palestinian members of the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine and two German communists, a male and female member of the Revolutionary Cells allied with Red Army Faction or better known as the Baader-Meinhof gang seized control.

The plane was diverted to Benghazi, Libya where the sympathetic Gaddaffi regime allowed it to be refueled. A female passenger faked a miscarriage and was released. After refueling the plane flew on to Entebbe, Uganda which was ruled at the time by the mentally unstable dictator Idi Amin. Four other Palestinian terrorists joined their comrades and Ugandan troops guarded the airport while Idi Amin and the terrorists made demands.

As well as $5 million for the return of the aircraft the terrorists also demanded the release of 53 terrorists in Israeli custody or the hostages would be killed by 1 July. Through back channels such as President Sadat of Egypt and Yasser Arafat of the PLO the Israelis began negotiations with Amin and the terrorists which led to the extension of the deadline to July 4. Scores of hostages were released among them the elderly and women with children. The majority of the 106 hostages who remained were Israeli Jews while the crew and other sympathetic passengers chose to remain behind.

The Israeli government decided they had no intention of giving in to the terrorist's demands. Intelligence and military chiefs met and agreed upon the audacious Operation Thunderbolt. Bruce Mackenzie, the South African born Kenyan minister of Agriculture persuaded the Kenyan leader President Jomo Kenyatta to help Israel by allowing overflights and refueling of the fleet of Israeli C-130 Hercules transport planes the Israeli planned to use to fly 100 commandos 2,500 miles to Entebbe to assault the airport terminal and rescue the hostages. The Israelis interrogated the released hostages and the builders of the airport terminal who supplied them with vital intelligence.

The first Israeli Hercules planes landed just before midnight on 3 July. A Mercedes resembling Amin's official car and a convoy of jeeps carrying heavily armed Israelis drove toward the terminal. Two Ugandans were shot when they discovered the ruse and the assault teams stormed the terminal.

Shouting through megaphones that they were Israelis and for the hostages to stay down the soldiers burst inside and a shoot out erupted between them and the terrorists. A teenage hostage overjoyed at what was happening rose to his feet and was fatally shot. Two others a man and a woman were killed by the crossfire. 75 year old Dora Bloch who was in an Ugandan hospital was not in the terminal and was later shot by Ugandan troops by an enraged Amin. The terrorists were soon all shot and killed by the commandos including the two Germans terrorists, Wilifried Bose and his girlfriend Brigitte Kuhlmann.

The Israeli commandos loaded the 102 surviving hostages onto the Hercules planes while firing back at the aroused Ugandan military. Five Israelis were wounded and Yonaton Netanyahu, the brother of future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was killed. All the hijackers were killed plus about 30 to 40 Ugandan soldiers. To assist their escape the Israelis destroyed about a dozen Ugandan fighter planes parked on the tarmac and took off for Israel again flying under the radar and returned to Israel via Nairobi.

When the rescued hostages arrived in Israeli they were met by overjoyed relatives and politicians and the heroic soldiers were carried shoulder high.
The rescue stunned the world and enraged Palestinians and political hate groups around the world who hate the State of Israel and seek its destruction and the mass murder of the Jewish people.

Israeli commandos must just do it for them.

Mr. CooL ICE

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