Welcome back to another scintillating episode of "Operation Entebbe", A successful counter-terrorist hostage -rescue mission carried out by commandos of the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport, Uganda.

Release of most non-Israeli hostages.

On 30 June, the hijackers released 48 hostages. The released were picked from among the non-Israeli group – mainly elderly and sick passengers and mothers with children. Forty-seven of them were flown to Paris, and one passenger was treated in hospital for a day. On 1 July, after the Israeli government had conveyed its agreement to negotiations, the hostage-takers extended their deadline to noon on 4 July and released another group of 100 non-Israeli captives who again were flown to Paris a few hours later. Among the 106 hostages staying behind with their captors at Entebbe airport were the 12 members of the Air France crew who refused to leave, [41] about ten young French passengers, and the Israeli group of some 84 people. Israel tried using political avenues to obtain the release of the hostages. Many sources indicate that the Israeli cabinet was prepared to release Palestinian prisoners if a military solution seemed unlikely to succeed. A retired IDF officer, Baruch "Burka" Bar-Lev, had known Idi Amin for many years and was considered to have a strong personal relationship with him. At the request of the cabinet, he spoke with Amin on the phone many times, trying to gain the release of the hostages, without success. The Israeli government also approached the United States government to deliver a message to Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat to no avail.

At the 1 July deadline, the Israeli cabinet offered to negotiate with the hijackers to extend the deadline to 4 July, Amin also asked them to extend the deadline until that the date. This extension of the hostage deadline proved crucial to providing Israeli forces enough time to get to Entebbe.

On 3 July, at 18:30, the Israeli cabinet approved a rescue mission, presented by Major General Yekutiel Adam and Brigadier General
Dan Shomron . Shomron was appointed as the operation commander.
As the crisis unfolded, attempts were made to negotiate the release of the hostages. The Egyptian government under Sadat tried to negotiate with both the PLO and the Ugandan government, Chairman Yasser Arafat sent his political aide Hani al-Hassan to Uganda as a special envoy to negotiate with the hostage takers and with Amin. However, the PFLP-EO hijackers refused to see him.

When Israeli authorities failed to negotiate a political solution, they decided that their only option was an attack to rescue the hostages. Lt. Col. Joshua Shani , lead pilot of the operation, later said that the Israelis had initially conceived of a rescue plan that involved dropping naval Commandos into Lake Victoria, the Commandos would have ridden rubber boats to the airport on the edge of the Lake, they planned to kill the hijackers and after freeing the hostages, they would ask Amin for a passage home, The Israelis abandon this plan because they don't have necessary time and also they received word that Lake Victoria was inhabited by the Nile Crocodile.

All these plans wouldn't have come into fruition without the intellectual prowess of "The Mossad'- Israel's intelligence Unit.

This clandestine plan is becoming exciting, Join us next as we bring to you another series of the heroic exploits of the Israeli Commandos.

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