Mission Thunderbolt- Bravery Mission Of Israel..
27 June 1976 A French passenger plane from the Israeli busiest city of Tel Aviv was flying to Paris, the capital of France, carrying about 248 people.
After a brief halt in the Greek capital, Athens, the aircraft began its onward journey, with four passengers, including two Palestinians and two Germans. One of the women in them, showing a grenade hidden in his hands, warned that if someone smacked it would blow up the entire plane!
The plane was hijacked by these four. On the strength of the threat, all these aircraft were turned and taken to the African country Libyan city of Benghazi, stayed there for seven hours. There they were joined by some more kidnappers, taking their total to seven and all of them took the plane from Benghazi to the airport Entebbe in the East African country of Uganda.
Uganda was ruled by the dictator Edi Amin at this time. Idi Amin cooperated fully with the kidnappers. All these aircraft passengers were held hostage in an old building at Entebbe Airport. Of these, there were a total of 94 Jewish passengers and all the passengers were released within two days except for 12 members of the French aircraft crew ie 106 people.
The kidnappers demanded from Israel that 40 Palestinians in his prison and 13 other Palestinians imprisoned in four other countries be released, otherwise they would kill all 106 hostages!
There were three routes. Pass through Kenya by road, or by sea or by air, the operation should be carried out. It was decided that "Operation Thunderbolt" would be carried out by air.
For this, the best 100 commandos of Israel were selected. Brigadier General Dam Schomron was made head of the mission and Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu (elder brother of current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) was in charge of the operation.
The Israeli intelligence agency 'Mossad' was put to work. An agent in Mossad collected a lot of information by taking pictures of the Entebbe airport by renting an aircraft from the neighboring country of Kenya, Uganda. It was learned that the building at Entebbe Airport, where the hostages are housed, was built by an Israeli company!
Then, it was all set to begin! A map of the entire building was taken from the said company. A similar structure was prepared. All commandos were rehearsed on how to deal with Ugandan soldiers and kidnappers!
During this time the Israeli government was contacting Edi Amin at its own level. He was being given the illusion that the Israeli government was ready to negotiate the release of the hostages from the kidnappers. This is so that Israel gets the time required for the above operation.
Meanwhile, Uganda's confident dictator Idi Amin left for Mauritius capital Port Louis to attend the summit of the Organization of African Unity. So Israel got proper time. That is, even God was helping Israel.
On the evening of 3 July, four Hercules planes crossed the Red Sea at a height of just 30 meters from Israel's Sinai Air Base. This is so that the radars of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Sudan do not catch them, otherwise these enemies of Israel would immediately warn the kidnappers!
Now 4000 kilometers had to be returned and also 4000 kilometers, so fuel was also filled in these four planes in the middle of the sky so that there was no problem of fuel on the way. Israeli commandos wore uniforms of Ugandan soldiers on the way. A Hercules aircraft was taken empty to bring passengers back in it.
After seven hours of continuous flight, the aircraft stealthily arrived at Uganda's Entebbe Airport at 1 pm. Now the date was 4 July 1976, that was about a week for the passengers to be held hostage.
The Israeli commandos also took a Kali Mercedes with them as Idi Amin used to walk in Kali Mercedes. This is so that Ugandan soldiers feel that Idi Amin has returned from Mauritius to see the hostages.
But there was a mess here. Actually for a few days, Idi Amin started walking in white Mercedes instead of Kali. Therefore, Ugandan soldiers shot rifles at these people as soon as they saw the black Mercedes. But what would the weary soldiers of Uganda stand in front of the best of the world. In a blink of an eye, the Israeli commandos piled these Ugandan soldiers with their silencer-fitted weapons!
After that, with two Land Rover vehicles brought with them, these commandos swiftly went towards the building where the hostages were kept. After reaching there, these commandos introduced themselves in English and Hebrew language to the hostages and laid them all on the floor for protection and asked them to proceed towards the main hall, where the kidnappers were restless.
These kidnappers would not have even dreamed that their death would come up in front of them in this way. Israeli commandos put the seven kidnappers to death. But three hostages were also killed in a shootout by the kidnappers.
By then, alert Ugandan troops began to surround Entebbe Airport. In the meantime, Israeli commandos started boarding the fourth plane carrying a total of 102 people, all Jewish passengers and members of the French crew.
At the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu, in charge of the Israeli operation, was shot in the chest. In retaliation, Israeli commandos killed at least 45 Ugandan soldiers. Also destroyed at least 30 Ugandan aircraft including 11 MiG aircraft standing at Entebbe Airport so that they could not chase them!
In just 58 minutes, after performing this almost impossible operation, these great commandos of Israel returned. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu succumbed to his injuries while five commandos were wounded.
Dora Block, a Jewish hostage, could not be brought back as she was admitted to Uganda's capital, Kampala, at a sudden deterioration. When Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, returned, he angrily dragged Dora Block from the hospital bed and killed her!
Thus, by losing his only soldier (elder brother of the present Prime Minister) and four hostages, Israel had done the same feat which nobody has ever done in human history till date.
When these Jabanz commandos returned to their homeland Israel after carrying out "Operation Thunderbolt", a large crowd was waiting to receive them with their eyelashes. The nobility showed courage, so the upstairs also supported them step by step!
When the country's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin introduced the single malt liquor giving the good news to the Leader of the Opposition, Menakhim Begin, the Leader of the Opposition said that since he does not drink alcohol, he will celebrate this good news by drinking tea. Then the Prime Minister said to the Leader of the Opposition, "Hey, understand that you are drinking colored tea, then the Leader of the Opposition happily said," Come, I can drink anything on this historic day today!
Author-Deepak Kumar Hota
Facebook link-https://www.facebook.com/Deepakhota18
Insta link-https://www.instagram.com/deepak_hota18/?igshid=1jxk0wkl6fevg
Twitter link-https://twitter.com/deepakhota18?s=08
