Operation Entebbe

Operation Entebbe or Operation Thunderbolt was one of the most successful rescue operations ever in the world history. To know the whole story behind this operation, you can read this blog. Operation Entebbe made history by IDF (Israel Defence Forces).

Israel is the country which is so humble towards their citizen, they can't even tolerate a single drop of blood of their citizen.

Plane hijack

On June 27

1976, Air France A330 plane took off from Ben Gurion International Airport. Israel was heading to Paris, France, with a stop in Athens, carrying 228 passengers of Israeli, French and various nationalities.
For 26 minutes, it was a convenient flight. After that 4 passenger stood up on their seat having guns and grenades in hand. It was well known that the plane has hijacked. Hijackers forced the pilot to divert the plane toward Victoria, Uganda. Since the fuel on the aircraft was low, so hijackers forced pilots to land in Libya for refueling. After refueling they took off for Entebbe, Uganda. By that time information reached to Israel Govt. about the plane being hijacked.
The main reason for hijackers to go to Uganda was that the president of Uganda Idi Amin had sympathy towards the hijackers. 

At Entebbe Airport, Uganda

Not only he came to welcome the hijacker but also provided security. First they separated 54 Europeans and threatened the Israel Govt. to free 40 Palestinian and affiliated militants imprisoned in Israel and 13 prisoners in four other countries in exchange of hostages otherwise they'll kill one by one.
It was very difficult to conduct a commando operation for a country which is about 4,000 Kms away.
They don't have enough time. Over following two days they released 148 non-Israeli passengers and flown to Paris, and here the hijackers make their biggest mistake. The investigators gathered all the information about Entebbe Airport through hostages.
In fact, the Entebbe Airport was designed by an Israel company, and they got the map, which was very essential for this operation.
From this, the greatest rescue operation in the world history began.
The extra time allowed IDF (Israel Defence Forces) to work on the operation, and they came up with an airlift relief mission. 

Raid on Entebbe

A force of best 200 commandos and 10 vehicles carried with four Hercules transporters would land at Entebbe. Since the operation was air lifter, the runway lights of Entebbe Airport should be on to land safely. On the other hand, the Govt. agreed to talk to hijackers.
This wasn't a easy operation because commandos had to travel 4,000 Kms to other country and rescue their citizens against hijackers.
But for rescuing hostages and bring them back to Israel, aircraft had to travel continuous 8,000 Kms, so they also arranged mid-air refueling.
Israel had 3 options:-
1) use aircraft for attack.
2) Reach target through the boat.
3) or via road through Kenya.
On July 4, four Hercules took off. They flew only 30 meters above to avoid the detection in radars.
All commandos were dressed up like Uganda soldiers. For continuous 7 hrs of flight the first aircraft reached above the Entebbe Airport. Fortunately, the runway lights were on which helped them to land safely. They got only 6 minutes to start their operation.Commandos knew that Idi Amin use a black Mercedes car to travel. So they arranged a Mercedes car and painted it black. The car carried out from the aircraft and there were commandos inside the car.

It was ordered that they don't have to shoot until they reach inside the terminal. But bad luck, few days ago Idi Amin changed the color of his car to white. Security guards came to know that this might not be Idi Amin. So, they started firing, but the Israel commandos shooted with the silencer. They told the hostages in English and in Hebrew that "we are the Israeli commandos came here to rescue you, where are all the terrorists?". Hostages indicated toward the main door of the hall. They threw grenades and started firing which killed all the terrorists. Commandos saw 11 MiG 21, they thought that if they chase them they will get shot in mid-air. So they destroyed all the fighter planes.
Unfortunately Lt. Col. Yonathan Netanyahu martyred.
Out of 106 hostages, three were killed, one was left in Uganda (74 years old Dora Bloch), and approximately 10 wounded.
This operation became the world's most daring and successful operation in the world history.