The Rescue: 'We Do the Impossible'

It was one of the most daring, spectacular rescues of modern times. For nearly a week, pro-Palestinian skyjackers had held 105 hostages--mostly Israeli--at Uganda's Entebbe Airport. Now, with time rapidly slipping away and the deadline merely hours off, death seemed ever more certain for the terrified captives. Then suddenly, in what in a different age would have been called the act of a deus ex machina, three Israeli C-130 Hercules transports, guns flaring, appeared in the dark sky over the airport. Soon they touched down, disgorging about 100 paratroopers and infantrymen and powerful armored personnel carriers.

As the engines of the Hercules were kept racing, the commando units, in civilian dress, fanned out across the airfield and headed for the old terminal (with its WELCOME TO UGANDA sign) where the skyjackers were guarding the hostages. After a 15-minute blaze of gunfire, it was all over. The terrorists, according to Israeli reports, were dead, and the hostages were on the planes. It had taken less than a half-hour, and the transports were back in the air. Before they left, the Israelis badly damaged or destroyed the Soviet-made Ugandan air force MIGS that were parked on the field, thus eliminating any danger of being pursued. Casualties, for such a risky operation, were relatively light: two hostages died of wounds, and one Israeli soldier was injured slightly.

For the 2,620-mile flight to Entebbe, the turboprop Hercules carefully flew over the Red Sea, protected by Israeli air force jet fighters, and were refueled in midair. For the return trip, however, the transports made a quick refueling stop in Kenya. Four hours later the planes and their shaken but much relieved passengers touched Israeli soil.

Proud Example. As Israelis awakened to the news of the rescue, excitement and pride rippled through the country. Gone was the humiliating feeling of helplessness with which they had lived through most of the week, as it increasingly appeared that the skyjackers would get their way. Clearly exultant was Minister Without Portfolio Gideon Hausner, who declared: "We have again provided the whole world with an example of how terrorism could be resisted and should be resisted." Exclaimed Minister of Tourism Moshe Kol: "We have to do the impossible."

The drama had begun almost a full week earlier, aboard Air France Flight 139, en route from Tel Aviv to Paris. Minutes after the Airbus took off from its stopover at Athens International Airport, a German girl in her late twenties got out of her seat in the first-class section of the jetliner. "Sit down!" she shouted. Holding two hand grenades aloft, the girl then herded the startled passengers into the tourist section of the plane, where three male comrades--a German and two Arabs--were already in control. With that, 242 passengers and twelve crew members began a terrifying odyssey that first took them to Libya for refueling (where a pregnant passenger was allowed to go free) and then to Uganda's Entebbe Airport. As the horror of what was happening sank in, a French oil executive moaned: "My God! This is my second skyjacking. I can't survive another one."

At Entebbe, the original skyjackers were reinforced by four men, probably Arabs, carrying submachine guns, rifles, a Beretta pistol and dynamite. Passengers and crew were herded into a seldom-used terminal; later, Israelis were separated from the others when one of the terrorists barked in English, "Israelis to the right." Via Radio Uganda, the skyjackers proclaimed that they were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Marxist, zealously anti-Israel fedayeen group led by Dr. George Habash. But the Popular Front's Beirut headquarters disowned them, and the 21-nation Arab League, at its Cairo meeting, condemned them.

Using Uganda's mercurial President Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada as an enthusiastic mouthpiece, the skyjackers warned that their hostages would be killed and the jet blown up unless 53 assorted "freedom fighters" were released from prisons. Israeli jails held 40 of them, including Melchite Catholic Archbishop Ilarion Capucci, who was convicted two years ago of gunrunning for Palestinian guerrillas, and Kozo Okamoto, the only survivor of the three Japanese Red Army members who massacred 27 bystanders in 1972 at Tel Aviv's Lod Airport. The 13 other extremists, claimed the skyjackers, were imprisoned in France, Switzerland, Kenya and West Germany. Among the six German prisoners were terrorist members of the Baader-Meinhof gang (TIME, May 24).

Terminal Discomfort. Both the French and German governments responded to the skyjackers' demands with tough declarations of noncompliance. The Swiss kept a discreet silence, while Kenya denied that it had any Palestinians in prison at all. Meanwhile, the hostages remained in the terminal, huddling together during the bitter-cold nights, trying to sleep on the hard benches and the stone floor as rats scampered around them. Claiming to be swayed by Amin's plea for humanitarianism, the terrorists released 47 elderly women, children and sick hostages at midweek.

By then, the skyjackers had set late Thursday afternoon as their deadline; either the 53 imprisoned terrorists would be delivered to Uganda or all the hostages would be killed. Shortly before expiration of the deadline, Jerusalem declared that it was willing to negotiate with the skyjackers. This was a decision Israel made with great reluctance, for Jerusalem has long maintained that concessions merely encourage more terrorism. The skyjackers then postponed the deadline three days and allowed an additional 101 captives to fly to Paris. Remaining as hostages were 93 passengers--mostly Israeli or those with Jewish sounding names--and the twelve crew members. It was their lives that hung in the balance as the Israelis decided to launch their raid.

This decision too was taken reluctantly. Israeli officials were aware that failure might mean certain death not only for the hostages but for the rescuing party as well. Thus although Jerusalem began planning the commando rescue almost immediately after the skyjackers had put down in Entebbe, there was a very compelling argument against it: never had the Israelis tried so ambitious an operation so far from home. The difficulties of mounting a raid in Uganda thus argued strongly in favor of trying negotiations. Indeed, late in the week, reviewing his country's meager options, an Israeli official sadly (although not quite accurately) concluded: "Since we are completely powerless to act, we have no choice but to make a deal."

With the deadline extension announced by the skyjackers, the negotiations began, via intermediaries. But as the talks progressed, it apparently became clear to Jerusalem that there was probably as much risk in negotiations as in a rescue mission. For one thing, Israeli officials were not all that sure that the skyjackers could be trusted to release the hostages once the imprisoned terrorists were freed.

Non-Neutral. Moreover, there was the increasingly alarming role played by Amin, who has been a vociferous champion of Arab causes since 1972, when he abruptly severed relations with Israel. (In return, Uganda has received generous financial aid from such Arab states as Libya, Kuwait and Algeria.) From the time the skyjackers landed at Entebbe, Amin had scarcely acted like a neutral participant in the drama. He described the skyjackers' demands as "very reasonable," and advised the Israeli hostages to "tell your government to solve the Palestinian problem."

By late Friday there were hints that Amin might be preparing demands of his own to make of the Israelis in addition to those made by the skyjackers. It was rumored in Jerusalem, for instance, that Amin sought to collect as much as $1 million per hostage from Israel. As Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres explained to TIME'S David Halevy, just after the rescue mission returned to Israel: "Amin not only took the terrorists' side and allowed local Palestinians into Entebbe to help the skyjackers, he also sent a special plane to Somalia to bring in more terrorists to guard the hostages. We had more than a feeling that even if we decided to accept all the demands of the terrorists we would have no insurance that our people would be allowed to return home. From the military point of view, it was the greatest risk we ever took."

Throughout Saturday, the last details of the commando mission were completed; early the next day the raiders struck. Reflected Peres later: "I'm proud of what we did and happy that we have an army, units and officers like these. But I hope we never have to repeat it." Less restrained was the Israeli radio announcer who first broadcast a hint of what was under way. "Hallelujah!" he exclaimed, to which the rest of the civilized world could now only say "Amen," as one of the most brazen terrorist acts in recent years has come to a surprising and welcome resolution.

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