On June 27, 1976—exactly 40 years ago—a group of Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Air France plane and forced it to landed in Entebbe, Uganda.
On July 4, Israeli commandos landed in Entebbe under the cover of darkness, posing as commercial planes, some of them even dressed up as Idi Amin and his security details.
In an operation that left the entire world in awe the Israeli forces released the hostages and killed the terrorists.
Despite the fact “Operation Thunderbolt” served as inspiration to quite a few movies and books, the commandos of Sayeret Matkal (the Special Forces unit that stormed the terminal) have never provided their detailed testimony of what happened in Entebbe that night.
Until now.
My colleague, Lior Ben-Ami and I are bringing exclusive excerpts from the testimonies recently written by the commandos. They will be published by Yedioth Ahronoth in English in five parts over the coming week and later as a book.
Beyond the obvious historical and political interest, the commandos’ testimonies simply make an enthralling read!
This is the link to the first part of the story, in which the soldiers recount the planning stages and preparations made for the operation:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4815198,00.html