Qualla: The Entebbe Raid

The Entebbe Raid: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Adam Jones, Ph.D., CC BY-SA 3.0. The old terminal at Entebbe still carries the scars. Look closely at the concrete and you can find the bullet holes, left there one summer night in 1976 when Israeli paratroopers came out of the African darkness to take back people they had never met. For a week the hostages had waited in that hall beside Lake Victoria, sorted by their captors according to whether they were Jewish, watching the clock count toward a deadline that was supposed to end their lives. Then, just after midnight, the lights of an unannounced aircraft appeared on the runway.

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Image: Adam Jones, Ph.D. | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Entebbe Raid: A Plane That Never Reached Paris

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 27 June 1976, Air France Flight 139 left Tel Aviv for Paris with stops planned along the way. During the stopover in Athens, four hijackers boarded - two from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's external operations wing, and two German members of the Revolution...

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Image: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE | CC BY-SA 2.0

The Entebbe Raid: The Selection

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit פורסם לציבור בתערוכה לציון 40 שנה למבצע אנטבה צילום שלי בתערוכה, Public domain. What happened next gave the crisis its terrible shape. On 29 June, the captors knocked through a wall to open a second room, then separated the passengers - Israelis and Jews of other nationalities to one side, everyone else to the other. To the older hostages, the echo was unmis...

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Image: פורסם לציבור בתערוכה לציון 40 שנה למבצע אנטבה צילום שלי בתערוכה | Public domain

The Entebbe Raid: Four Thousand Kilometers in the Dark

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit פורסם לציבור בתערוכה לציון 40 שנה למבצע אנטבה צילום שלי בתערוכה, Public domain. In Israel, ministers argued between negotiation and force until intelligence from the Mossad, including details from freed hostages and old construction plans of the terminal, made a raid seem possible. On the night of 3 July, four C-130 transport planes flew more than 4,000 kilo...

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Image: פורסם לציבור בתערוכה לציון 40 שנה למבצע אנטבה צילום שלי בתערוכה | Public domain

The Entebbe Raid: The Ones Who Did Not Come Home

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ltshears, CC BY-SA 3.0. A rescue measured by numbers can hide the people inside them. Three hostages died during the operation, caught in the crossfire of a battle fought in darkness and confusion. A fourth, Dora Bloch, was not even there for the raid. A 74-year-old grandmother who held both Israeli and...

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Image: Ltshears | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Entebbe Raid: A Terminal Left Standing

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit sarahemcc, CC BY 2.0. Entebbe changed how the world thought about hostage rescue. Governments studied the operation; counter-terror units modeled themselves on it. But on the ground in Uganda the story was quieter and more human. The old terminal, by the lakeshore, still stands beside the modern airpo...

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Image: sarahemcc | CC BY 2.0