1. Operation Entebbe 1976
On the 27th of June an Air France plane with 248 passengers was taken over by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations and two members of German Revolutionary Cells. They demanded that 40 Palestinian prisoners in Israel and 13 prisoners in 4 other countries be released in exchange for the safe return of the hostages.
The flight began in Tel Aviv and was supposed to reach Paris, but the hijackers diverted the plan to Uganda. The Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was sympathetic to the hijackers and personally welcomed the terrorists. The passengers were taken off the plane and moved into an abandoned airport building. The attackers separated the Israelis and non-Israeli Jews from the main group of passengers and put them in another room. Over 2 days 148 passengers were released and flown to Paris.
94 passengers and the 12-person crew remained as hostages. The terrorists alerted that they planned to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met. For a week Israeli forces planned out a hostage rescue that involved flying 100 commandos to Uganda. The Israeli’s also brought along vehicles that looked just like President Idi Amin’s motorcade. However, when they reached the checkpoint they learned their Mercedes was the wrong color. The commandos killed the sentries and raced toward the terminal fearing the terrorists would be alerted.
The raid lasted 90 minutes with 102 hostages being rescued. Three hostages died in the raid and one Israeli Commando Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu was killed in the operation. The 7 hijackers, 45 Ugandan troops were also killed and several aircraft were destroyed. In retaliation Idi Amin issued the slaughter of hundreds of Kenyans in Uganda due to the support of Kenyan sources.