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Israeli Forces Strike_ The Raid On Entebbe Operation Thunderbolt · NO FILTER

0:01
Speaker 1: An international flight hijacked by armed terrorists is flown to
0:06
Speaker 1: hostile territory.
0:09
Speaker 2: Every few hours, they say that they're going to execute us.
0:16
Speaker 1: Demands are made, deadlines are set. An elite special forces
0:22
Speaker 1: team known as the Unit, moves into action.
0:27
Speaker 3: To kill someone is relatively simple. To rescue someone is
0:30
Speaker 3: much more complicated.
0:33
Speaker 1: As time is running out, a daring plan is launched
0:36
Speaker 1: from thousands of miles away.
0:38
Speaker 4: There they'll stand as one of the most bold special
0:42
Speaker 4: force operations in modern history.
0:47
Speaker 1: Now on black Arms, behind the scenes of one of
0:50
Speaker 1: the most daring rescue missions ever made, Operation Thunderbart Air
1:27
Speaker 1: France flight one three nine from Tel Aviv to Paris
1:30
Speaker 1: makes a stopover in Athens. On board the airplane are
1:35
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty eight passengers and crew members.
1:38
Speaker 5: I was putting nail polish on my nails and we
1:43
Speaker 5: were talking to the girls sitting in front of us.
1:47
Speaker 6: I didn't suspect anything.
1:51
Speaker 1: Shortly after takeoff, terrorists storm the cockpit. One of them
1:57
Speaker 1: takes over the radio and announces the flight is highjacked.
2:01
Speaker 1: No one knows where it's headed. In Jerusalem, a routine
2:08
Speaker 1: cabinet meeting is interrupted and the message is delivered to
2:11
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin. Defense Minister Shimon Perez is also getting.
2:18
Speaker 7: The news made came in and they ended mavis piece
2:24
Speaker 7: of information that said that in air France plane was hijacked.
2:31
Speaker 8: Good evening and air of France jet was hijacked by
2:33
Speaker 8: Palestinian guerrillas.
2:35
Speaker 1: Today, the hijacking of flight one three nine is just
2:39
Speaker 1: the latest and a string of terrorist attacks targeting Israeli citizens.
2:47
Speaker 1: Four years earlier, in nineteen seventy two, eleven Israeli athletes
2:51
Speaker 1: were killed in an attack on their compound at the
2:55
Speaker 1: Munich Olympics. In the same year, terrorists shart and kills
3:03
Speaker 1: twenty six passengers waiting for their luggage in Tel Aviv airport,
3:11
Speaker 1: And in nineteen seventy four, terrorists siege to high school
3:15
Speaker 1: in northern Israel, killing twenty two, most of them young students.
3:23
Speaker 1: Immediately after the hijacking, Israeli special forces are put on
3:27
Speaker 1: high alert. The authorities are expecting the plane to arrive
3:32
Speaker 1: in Tel Aviv, but the hijackers have a different plan.
3:37
Speaker 1: One of them is a trained pilot. He instructs the
3:40
Speaker 1: captain to divert the flight to Libya.
3:43
Speaker 2: He knew exactly how to fly an airplane, and he
3:48
Speaker 2: had the maps that he needed and he followed the
3:52
Speaker 2: our pilot to see that he's taking him wherever he
3:55
Speaker 2: wants to go.
4:00
Speaker 1: On the ground in Libya, one desperate passenger pretends to
4:03
Speaker 1: be having a miscarriage in an attempt to escape. She
4:08
Speaker 1: is released and immediately met by Israeli intelligence officers. They
4:13
Speaker 1: learn from her that there are four terrorists, two German
4:17
Speaker 1: and two Palestinia. They are armed with guns and grenades.
4:23
Speaker 7: The plane continued to fly and we didn't know to
4:28
Speaker 7: which destination.
4:32
Speaker 1: It is headed to Africa. In the early hours of
4:36
Speaker 1: June twenty eighth, Air France flight one three nine lands
4:41
Speaker 1: in Entepe Airport in Uganda, more than two thousand miles
4:45
Speaker 1: from Tel Aviv. At first, the passengers think the crisis
4:51
Speaker 1: is coming to an end.
4:52
Speaker 2: They told us we are going to be released in Uganda.
4:58
Speaker 1: But as soon as they get off the plane, the
5:00
Speaker 1: hopes are dashed.
5:03
Speaker 5: There were two rows of Gangan soldiers standing with guns
5:09
Speaker 5: and we were in the middle and they led us
5:12
Speaker 5: into the terminal of Nenthebe. That was the second big,
5:17
Speaker 5: very big shock.
5:19
Speaker 2: We were sure that we were free, free to go,
5:23
Speaker 2: and then we saw that lots of Ugandian soldiers are
5:27
Speaker 2: waiting for us there and six small terrorists who were
5:31
Speaker 2: waiting for us there.
5:35
Speaker 1: Instead of being released, they led to an unused terminal
5:39
Speaker 1: in Antibbi Airport.
5:42
Speaker 2: They told us that we're going to stay there, and
5:46
Speaker 2: later they brought us a mattresses and the blankets.
5:58
Speaker 1: Soon they received a visit from you. Ganda's unpredictable and
6:01
Speaker 1: ruthless ruler, Dr Mean. He offers his services as a
6:06
Speaker 1: mediator in the crisis.
6:09
Speaker 8: Negotiations between the hijackers and u Gans and officials led
6:12
Speaker 8: by President Edi A Mean. We're out of stalemate, but
6:15
Speaker 8: the hijackers didn't allow the planes two hundred and fifty
6:18
Speaker 8: six passengers to wait in the airport lounge.
6:23
Speaker 1: In Jerusalem. The cabinet ministers are wondering if our Mean
6:27
Speaker 1: can be trusted.
6:29
Speaker 7: And we didn't know yet. Is it in co ordination
6:33
Speaker 7: with the Organda people? Was it pre arranged? We did
6:38
Speaker 7: inter the statay there.
6:43
Speaker 1: The hijackers still haven't issued any demands. The passengers and
6:47
Speaker 1: sure of their fate, spend a nervous night in Ntabbe Airport.
6:52
Speaker 1: In the morning, the terrorists make an announcement.
6:58
Speaker 5: They are going to separate part of us to the
7:01
Speaker 5: other room, and it will be more comfort for all
7:03
Speaker 5: of us.
7:04
Speaker 9: It sounds bridger.
7:08
Speaker 2: They started to call us by names. After the first
7:12
Speaker 2: few names, we understood that they're calling the Israeli people
7:16
Speaker 2: and the Jewish people. It was a very frightening moment.
7:21
Speaker 1: For many passengers, the process of a selection between Jews
7:25
Speaker 1: and non Jews. There's echoes of the Holocaust.
7:30
Speaker 5: It's such a dispair, it's such a feeling of that's it,
7:35
Speaker 5: the end, because you can't do anything. And we knew
7:40
Speaker 5: that they were going to release all the others.
7:45
Speaker 7: They separated between Jews and not Drews. The fact that
7:49
Speaker 7: they are dramas and they made a separation really made
7:54
Speaker 7: me outraged.
7:57
Speaker 1: In Jerusalem, the leaders anxiously followed news reports from Ntabbe
8:01
Speaker 1: as the terrorists announce their demands, but.
8:04
Speaker 8: The hijackers rotten to kill the more than two hundred
8:07
Speaker 8: remaining hostages, including seven Americans, unless Israel and four other
8:12
Speaker 8: countries released three pro Palestinian prisoners.
8:18
Speaker 1: The hijackers set a deadline for their demands.
8:22
Speaker 10: The tourists send us a message that if they are
8:25
Speaker 10: not going to get the answer in the next well fowls,
8:31
Speaker 10: thin owls. They'll start to execute passengers one by one
8:37
Speaker 10: on an hourly basis.
8:42
Speaker 1: Israel has a long standing policy not to give in
8:44
Speaker 1: to terrorists demands. Defense Minister Shimon Perez knows he needs
8:49
Speaker 1: to start setting in motion a response.
8:54
Speaker 7: If we can find a political way, why not. But parallel,
9:00
Speaker 7: I started to look for a military solution.
9:06
Speaker 1: Paris will turn to the Israeli defense forces. They have
9:09
Speaker 1: a reputation as one of the best trained armies in
9:11
Speaker 1: the world. Its elite special forces units have carried out
9:16
Speaker 1: many daring operations.
9:18
Speaker 4: They had a force that was capable. The consequence of
9:23
Speaker 4: their failure, I think was great. The consequence of this success.
9:30
Speaker 9: Was even great.
9:34
Speaker 1: But Uganda is two thousand miles away. Staging a rescue
9:37
Speaker 1: mission so far from home and under such a tight
9:40
Speaker 1: deadline seems impossible. The Israeli leaders are trying to devise
9:44
Speaker 1: a response, but they desperately need more time.
9:49
Speaker 7: I thought we hea a chance, a little bit of daring,
9:53
Speaker 7: go much daring and deciz siveness and surprise and ingenuity
9:58
Speaker 7: to do the troub.
10:02
Speaker 1: Any operation would be extremely risky.
10:05
Speaker 4: This was a push for an emerging country. It happened
10:11
Speaker 4: at a period of time where you had an emerging
10:14
Speaker 4: nation whose destiny was uncertain.
10:20
Speaker 1: The intelligence available is minimal. They don't know how many
10:23
Speaker 1: terrorists are involved, or if they have the backing of
10:26
Speaker 1: the Ugandan army. They could be facing thousands in hostile
10:31
Speaker 1: and unfamiliar territory. But Defense Minister Paris is pushing for
10:37
Speaker 1: a plan.
10:39
Speaker 7: The fellows I called in was the commander of the
10:42
Speaker 7: alphal so I like very much. They called in that
10:46
Speaker 7: young commandos. They says, look, we have to look at
10:49
Speaker 7: the map, we have to check all the radio stations.
10:54
Speaker 7: How can we land.
10:57
Speaker 1: Joshuashani, one of Israel's top five, gets an urgent phone call.
11:03
Speaker 11: It's very unusual to get a direct call from the
11:06
Speaker 11: commander of the air Force. And what he wanted to
11:09
Speaker 11: know is very basic information about the range, about it
11:14
Speaker 11: the payload that we can take, about the fuel needed,
11:17
Speaker 11: about the route that it's possible on not to do.
11:21
Speaker 11: I gave him one by one everything he needed to know,
11:23
Speaker 11: and then he said, come back to the headquarters.
11:26
Speaker 7: We'll start planning.
11:29
Speaker 1: The planners need to know how big a threat the
11:31
Speaker 1: Ugandan army is. They turned to Moki Petza, a commander
11:36
Speaker 1: with his ready special forces who knows the African force
11:39
Speaker 1: as well.
11:41
Speaker 9: And I was sent to train the paratroopers unit for
11:46
Speaker 9: two years. They asked me, looking, what do you know
11:49
Speaker 9: about the Ugandan army, and I said, listen, the Ugandan
11:52
Speaker 9: army is not exactly a well trained army, not like
11:55
Speaker 9: the idea of forn acnticuse.
11:58
Speaker 1: The planning group consider several options. One involves dropping boats
12:03
Speaker 1: and a parachute force into Lake Victoria by Antebe.
12:08
Speaker 9: We've tested parachuting into Lake Victoria's but we didn't have
12:12
Speaker 9: any experience for such things, and Navy tried it and
12:15
Speaker 9: about to exploded.
12:18
Speaker 11: Technically, we did not do well in the exercise. That
12:23
Speaker 11: one boat was blown up and it was kind of
12:27
Speaker 11: and the second round was better, but say fifty percent,
12:29
Speaker 11: it's not good enough for an operation like this.
12:33
Speaker 1: The Prime Minister sent them back to work and he
12:37
Speaker 1: did not approve that operation.
12:40
Speaker 10: He thought it would be very risky and it was
12:43
Speaker 10: not a wise plan. And some of the military people
12:47
Speaker 10: were very disappointed that that plan was not approved, and
12:50
Speaker 10: he stated, I want another plane as soon as possible,
12:54
Speaker 10: and he set specific guidelines to the plane.
13:00
Speaker 1: Of a failed operation start to sink in.
13:04
Speaker 7: I thought if you've failed, it will be a boosts,
13:10
Speaker 7: it will be a shame for you. Then it will
13:14
Speaker 7: make an army look as a second late army.
13:20
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the government is under enormous pressure from the families
13:24
Speaker 1: of the hostages to give in to the terrorists demands.
13:29
Speaker 12: The Prime Ministers are representative group and revealed that the
13:32
Speaker 12: government had decided to negotiate with the hijackers to secure
13:36
Speaker 12: the relief of all of the hostages and was ready
13:38
Speaker 12: to release some terrorists held in his raady jails then return.
13:48
Speaker 10: As it was, do whatever we can to meet that
13:52
Speaker 10: goes demand and three hour fado for modives and relatives.
14:00
Speaker 1: Secretly, the military planners work according to the new guidelines
14:04
Speaker 1: set by the Prime Minister.
14:07
Speaker 10: One it should be a complete surprise. B The time
14:11
Speaker 10: that plans will will lend and the military operation will
14:15
Speaker 10: start should be limited to a specific number of minutes.
14:21
Speaker 1: But they still don't have a plan of action. It's
14:23
Speaker 1: decided to try to pressure Dr Me to solve the
14:26
Speaker 1: crisis one more time. An old Israeli friend that the
14:30
Speaker 1: Ugandan president calls him, so he.
14:33
Speaker 6: Called him early morning.
14:35
Speaker 10: He said, remember you told me once that your mother
14:40
Speaker 10: told you to help the people of Jerusalem, and that's
14:45
Speaker 10: your chance. Those people that are being kept in your
14:48
Speaker 10: terminal are your guests. But if you will not take
14:53
Speaker 10: good care of them, you might.
14:56
Speaker 6: Pay a price for it.
14:58
Speaker 1: The calls convinced is Raeli leader is that their only
15:00
Speaker 1: remaining option is a daring military raid, but negotiating may
15:10
Speaker 1: allow them to buy more time to solve their big problem.
15:13
Speaker 1: The planners are hampered by a lack of intelligence.
15:16
Speaker 7: They build on gum.
15:18
Speaker 9: We've got Super eight films and photographs. They gave us
15:21
Speaker 9: information about the distances we were watching TV. Armine was
15:26
Speaker 9: coming in every evening to see them, so intelligence was
15:29
Speaker 9: coming in slowly, but this wasn't operational intelligence.
15:34
Speaker 1: On Wednesday, less than twenty four hours before the deadline
15:37
Speaker 1: they've set for executions expires, the hijackers released the non
15:41
Speaker 1: Israeli hostages and allowed them to fly back to Paris.
15:46
Speaker 1: It's their first mistake.
15:50
Speaker 10: We send the team to Paris to interview them, find
15:53
Speaker 10: out as much as we can details of what is
15:57
Speaker 10: taking place, and determined.
16:01
Speaker 1: This is a critical breakthrough. The released passengers provide them
16:05
Speaker 1: with information about the number of terrorists, Ugandan treats helping them,
16:09
Speaker 1: and the exact location of the hostages. With the new intelligence,
16:14
Speaker 1: the odds that the raid may work improve.
16:19
Speaker 9: So that we were sure that coming to Terby from
16:23
Speaker 9: out of the blue, and Terby is so far away
16:28
Speaker 9: from Israel, and with our force we can finish it
16:32
Speaker 9: in less than two minutes, you.
16:36
Speaker 13: Know, trying to gain that upperhand again, attack the enemy
16:39
Speaker 13: on your terms, and trying to achieve that element of surprise,
16:42
Speaker 13: and that was probably the greatest thing they had gone
16:44
Speaker 13: for them.
16:46
Speaker 1: Then another piece of encouraging news arrives only hours before
16:50
Speaker 1: the executions are due to begin in Ntebe. The hijackers
16:53
Speaker 1: agree to extend the deadline.
16:57
Speaker 7: We need a time to keep quiet and to keep
17:01
Speaker 7: the attention around the negotiations. If the slightest tumor indication
17:07
Speaker 7: will leak that we have a military intention, we lost it.
17:12
Speaker 1: They're still missing a critical piece of intelligence, a detailed
17:16
Speaker 1: image of the terminal.
17:18
Speaker 10: We asked somebody from that was at that time in Kenya,
17:23
Speaker 10: not an Israeli, to try to fly about the above
17:28
Speaker 10: the airport by a small plane and try to take
17:33
Speaker 10: pictures where exactly the air France's plane is l is
17:38
Speaker 10: parked and as much as information he could get from
17:42
Speaker 10: that and he was able to do that and transfer
17:46
Speaker 10: those photos to us. So altogether we had quite a
17:51
Speaker 10: clear idea where the hostages are being kept.
17:57
Speaker 6: What is the logistics of the airport?
17:59
Speaker 10: Where kind of plan lend its exactly the commercial runway
18:05
Speaker 10: of the airport.
18:06
Speaker 6: It was also a military section of the airport.
18:10
Speaker 1: M The top secret is really counter terrorism teams simply
18:14
Speaker 1: known as the Unit have been put on high alert
18:17
Speaker 1: since the crisis began. It's time to mobilize the troops.
18:23
Speaker 9: It's a very special units, the cream of the crop.
18:28
Speaker 9: It was developed over the years to carry out intelligence
18:31
Speaker 9: and counter terrorism operations and others. Recall, the.
18:43
Speaker 1: Unit has built its mystique by carrying out the most
18:46
Speaker 1: dairy missions, operating behind enemy lines and rescuing hostages.
18:52
Speaker 3: It says the significant reputation because it took far too
18:55
Speaker 3: many special operations.
18:57
Speaker 1: Like other black ops units around the world, the unit
19:00
Speaker 1: its operators have to go through a grueling selection camp
19:03
Speaker 1: to join. The few who pass it are invited to
19:06
Speaker 1: join the Teeth.
19:07
Speaker 3: The first and foremost at the little feature is the termination.
19:12
Speaker 9: The operators need a combination of skills physical ability, intelligence,
19:18
Speaker 9: good technical skills, and social skills. Because its team.
19:26
Speaker 1: Only a few of the unit's operations have ever been
19:29
Speaker 1: made public, among them rescuing hostages from terrorists who hijacked
19:34
Speaker 1: a Sabina Airline flight in nineteen seventy two. When the
19:39
Speaker 1: plane arrived in Tel Aviv, the troops pretended to be
19:42
Speaker 1: technicians coming to fix the plane. They then stormed it
19:48
Speaker 1: and rescued all the passengers. In operations Spring of Youth
19:54
Speaker 1: in Lebanon in nineteen seventy three, the unit's troops avenged
19:58
Speaker 1: the killing of Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics.
20:02
Speaker 9: We came from the sea, came in with the Navy seals.
20:07
Speaker 9: We were dressed as tourists who Barak was my partner.
20:10
Speaker 9: He was dressed as a woman. We got to the
20:13
Speaker 9: heart of their route and took out three terrorist leaders
20:15
Speaker 9: in retaliation.
20:18
Speaker 7: I thought those boys, if there are somebody in the
20:20
Speaker 7: world that can do it, they will know it and
20:22
Speaker 7: they are ready to pay with their life. We've done
20:25
Speaker 7: it with the slightest hesitation.
20:29
Speaker 1: The unit is the best chance Israel has, but they
20:33
Speaker 1: only have hours to come up with a plan. If
20:36
Speaker 1: they failed, the terrorists will deliver on their threat and
20:40
Speaker 1: start executing passengers in the Army's headquarters in Tel Aviv.
20:46
Speaker 1: One plan that initially seemed like an outlandish idea is
20:50
Speaker 1: starting to take shape, sending a strike force two thousand
20:53
Speaker 1: miles away and storming the terminal under the cover of darkness.
21:00
Speaker 9: The plan was to send four planes, the first and
21:02
Speaker 9: seven minutes ahead of the others.
21:06
Speaker 1: Joshua Shani will be the lead pilot. He will fly
21:08
Speaker 1: the assault team twenty nine matt Cow soldiers led by
21:12
Speaker 1: Yoni Nettan Yahu. With him is Muki Betsa, who is
21:16
Speaker 1: part of the group that planned the operation. To add
21:20
Speaker 1: to the element of surprise, the special forces team assembles
21:23
Speaker 1: a convoy of official looking vehicles.
21:27
Speaker 11: CBS showed a couple of times Edamin coming with Mercedes
21:32
Speaker 11: with two langovegips to visit the terminal, to visit Oltogy,
21:36
Speaker 11: we saw the same, Well, why wouldn't we do the same?
21:42
Speaker 9: One Mercedes and two land Robes. We will all be
21:45
Speaker 9: dressed up as Ugandans, basically staging the arrival of Edamin
21:49
Speaker 9: or another dignitary as they did every night. A plan
21:53
Speaker 9: is to get there and completely surprise them, storm the terminal,
21:57
Speaker 9: take out the terrace, and release their hostages.
22:03
Speaker 1: The rest of the force. Another two hundred top infantry
22:06
Speaker 1: line and paratroopers hand picked for the mission will arrive
22:09
Speaker 1: in the other three Hercules planes.
22:12
Speaker 11: The other three will wait seven minutes in a holding
22:16
Speaker 11: patter in the south of him around the border of
22:20
Speaker 11: Kenya and Uganda, just to make sure that we will
22:25
Speaker 11: keep the maximum surprise, minimum noise.
22:30
Speaker 1: They will land in seven minute intervals. Their job to
22:34
Speaker 1: secure the airport, fight back an in retaliation, and provide
22:38
Speaker 1: backup for the rescue team. The unit senior operators are assembled.
22:48
Speaker 1: A mere Offer is at home just days before finishing
22:52
Speaker 1: his mandatory service with the unit.
22:54
Speaker 3: It was a very frightening phone call, I must have been.
22:58
Speaker 3: I was told come immediately to the to your base.
23:01
Speaker 3: All of us were very worried. It was a very
23:03
Speaker 3: dangerous operation.
23:05
Speaker 1: Practice begins. They need to be ready for every potential scenario.
23:13
Speaker 9: Our learning seemed perfect, with a high probability that throughout
23:17
Speaker 9: the journey, the landing and the raid on the terminal,
23:20
Speaker 9: we will be able to maintain the surprise element.
23:24
Speaker 1: Israel's leaders and top military commanders are invited to observe
23:28
Speaker 1: a dress rehearsal or an improvised model of the terminal.
23:31
Speaker 7: When you decide an operation, you have to take a risk.
23:36
Speaker 7: The question is is it there is never risk. I
23:40
Speaker 7: wouldn't do it to commit suicide. And when I saw
23:45
Speaker 7: the boys, I saw the preparation. Myself assurance grew up.
23:54
Speaker 1: At the end of the rehearsal, the chief of Staff
23:57
Speaker 1: wants to know what are their chances of succeeding.
24:02
Speaker 9: He collected all the commanders together after the rehearsal. He
24:11
Speaker 9: asked each of us to say if we believe in
24:15
Speaker 9: the plan or not. All of us said that seventy
24:20
Speaker 9: to eighty percent it would fail, but we decided to go.
24:26
Speaker 13: When you have the type of well trained personnel, and
24:31
Speaker 13: some of the ground forces are exceptionally well trained, you
24:34
Speaker 13: know you do what you have to do in order
24:36
Speaker 13: to you know, accomplish the mission.
24:41
Speaker 1: The hijacker's new deadline is approaching fast Perez, the Minister
24:45
Speaker 1: of Defense needs to convince Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin to
24:49
Speaker 1: green light the risky operation.
24:53
Speaker 10: He struggled with that decision for a day. In the
24:57
Speaker 10: night he told me that you had he slept.
25:01
Speaker 14: I wanted to carry out the mission. I wanted to
25:03
Speaker 14: do it. I saw that it possible. I wanted to
25:08
Speaker 14: be a part of it, and I was very anxious
25:12
Speaker 14: to get airborne and get out and do it. And
25:17
Speaker 14: we were sitting there waiting for an approval.
25:21
Speaker 1: Five days into the crisis. On Friday, encouraged by the
25:25
Speaker 1: latest developments, Ravine, who was a former general, is persuaded.
25:30
Speaker 10: He accompanied me to the elevators and said to me,
25:35
Speaker 10: almost if the military operation will fail and the chances
25:40
Speaker 10: are fifty to fifty, I will resign the following day.
25:49
Speaker 1: My Minister, Ravine wants the entire government to sign off
25:52
Speaker 1: on what has been until now a secret plan. As
25:55
Speaker 1: time is running out, two hundred of Israel's top fighters
25:59
Speaker 1: were taking off to Africa, ready to carry out the
26:02
Speaker 1: daring rescue raid, now code named Operation Thunderbolt. The final
26:07
Speaker 1: go or no go will be given while they're in
26:11
Speaker 1: the air.
26:12
Speaker 11: We took off to the mission without the final approval
26:15
Speaker 11: of the government.
26:17
Speaker 1: The assault teams had less than twenty four hours to
26:19
Speaker 1: prepare before changing to Ugandan uniforms their operational disguise as
26:24
Speaker 1: they attempt to pass themselves off as an official escort
26:27
Speaker 1: to Idia means motorcaid.
26:32
Speaker 3: He was totally sure that no one will appose the operation.
26:36
Speaker 3: We'll be canceled within a few hours. This was to risky,
26:39
Speaker 3: too far. It was a crazy operation.
26:47
Speaker 1: The troops are getting a quick last minute briefing, which.
26:51
Speaker 3: Is our commander explained that we have a very short
26:55
Speaker 3: time to prepare the operation. Therefore, we will not discuss
27:00
Speaker 3: any activities of other forces. They just told each one
27:04
Speaker 3: of us what's a specific role of each squad.
27:08
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, an emergency cabinet meeting is called. Unless
27:13
Speaker 1: all ministers approve the plan, the troops will be called back.
27:18
Speaker 1: The Hercules planes have been in the air for nearly
27:20
Speaker 1: two hours when a message arrives, Operation Thunderbolt is.
27:26
Speaker 4: A go given at the consequence of both failure and
27:30
Speaker 4: success for the state of Israel. I think it was
27:34
Speaker 4: a very very tough call, but it was one they
27:40
Speaker 4: had to make.
27:44
Speaker 1: In Antebe for the hostages, the situation seems hopeless.
27:50
Speaker 5: We couldn't even for one percent thing that Israeli are
27:54
Speaker 5: coming to save us.
27:54
Speaker 6: Film no way.
27:58
Speaker 5: We didn't know what's going on in Nobody was talking
28:02
Speaker 5: to us.
28:04
Speaker 1: The deadline for executions to begin approaches.
28:09
Speaker 2: Every few hours. They said that they were going to
28:12
Speaker 2: execute us, each and every one of us. I remember that.
28:16
Speaker 2: My thought was I would like to be one of
28:19
Speaker 2: the first because I couldn't think seeing the others being killed.
28:26
Speaker 5: It was despairing, not giving any hope.
28:34
Speaker 1: The four Hercules planes head north, then turned south, flying
28:37
Speaker 1: over the Red Sea and over to Africa. In the cockpit,
28:42
Speaker 1: lead pilot Joshua Shani feels the burden of responsibility.
28:47
Speaker 11: The fear was for failure, real fear, big fear, twenty
28:51
Speaker 11: nine years old. It's all on my shoulder, and if
28:54
Speaker 11: I screw it up, this is a national disaster.
29:01
Speaker 1: The journey is some twenty two hundred miles long and
29:05
Speaker 1: it involves crossing hostile airspace. If detected, they could be
29:09
Speaker 1: shot down.
29:11
Speaker 11: We kept radio silence because we didn't want anybody from
29:16
Speaker 11: the enemy countries next to us to listen.
29:19
Speaker 1: To avoid getting detected. They fly as low as only
29:21
Speaker 1: one hundred feet above the sea, making the journey a rough.
29:25
Speaker 1: Even so, some of the troops use the time to prepare.
29:30
Speaker 3: I loaded my AK forty seven and I opened a
29:34
Speaker 3: safety pin, and my friend was sitting beside me shouted
29:38
Speaker 3: on me. You have not supposed to open a safety
29:41
Speaker 3: pin to load the weapon within a plane. Told them
29:44
Speaker 3: shut up, this is a real war.
29:49
Speaker 1: Others like Martin Vellani, the operation's deputy commander, and Johnny
29:53
Speaker 1: nettan Yah, the unit's commander, managed to catch a few
29:56
Speaker 1: minutes of sleep.
29:58
Speaker 9: Both of us occupied the spread with full gear and weapons.
30:02
Speaker 9: We tried to sleep. It's a long flight.
30:07
Speaker 11: I found very difficult to understand how a guide that's
30:11
Speaker 11: going to storm and his chances to get killed of
30:13
Speaker 11: fifty percent can sleep like a baby. And he did
30:16
Speaker 11: sleep like a baby.
30:20
Speaker 1: Just as they get to the border of Kenya and Uganda,
30:23
Speaker 1: the pilots break formation and separate. Shani, carrying the attack force,
30:28
Speaker 1: continues directly towards Nteba while the others reach the airport
30:32
Speaker 1: from another direction. The aim is to time their arrival
30:37
Speaker 1: to maximize the potential surprise.
30:39
Speaker 13: Very nagous. You know, we're flying into an airfield that
30:42
Speaker 13: the enemy forces are controlling with aircraft that are essentially unarmed.
30:48
Speaker 13: You know they didn't in their gunships govern him to
30:51
Speaker 13: be able to come in land.
30:53
Speaker 11: When we had to pick up the time or flinding,
30:57
Speaker 11: we knew it should be the middle of the night
30:59
Speaker 11: some time.
31:02
Speaker 1: As the plane approaches and Tepe Airport, the control tower,
31:05
Speaker 1: anticipating another arriving flight, asks the plane to identify itself.
31:11
Speaker 1: Shani's answer could seal the fate of the mission.
31:15
Speaker 9: In broken English, they start asking questions and our captain
31:22
Speaker 9: who gave the right house.
31:24
Speaker 1: Shani manages to pass as another incoming flight without raising suspicion,
31:30
Speaker 1: and his plane lands at eleven oh one pm Uganda time,
31:34
Speaker 1: right on schedule. The rest of the force two hundred
31:39
Speaker 1: troops should arrive within the next fifteen minutes.
31:43
Speaker 14: When I was at approximately fifteen hundred, one thousand feet
31:47
Speaker 14: over the lake, I saw the lights of the runway
31:52
Speaker 14: very clear. In all of a sudden, I was relieved
32:00
Speaker 14: the flight was behind me. I was in information, I
32:03
Speaker 14: was exactly on time, the runways in front of me.
32:08
Speaker 7: A piece of cake. And then.
32:12
Speaker 14: When I was at three hundred feet approximately three hundred feet,
32:16
Speaker 14: all of a sudden, the lights went off, complete darkness.
32:22
Speaker 14: My first officer unbuckled his harness, stood up, peered through
32:30
Speaker 14: the windows looking for any clue whereasta runway.
32:35
Speaker 1: But until then, the MARCAW operators are on.
32:40
Speaker 3: Of the intelligence. We got what that are between two
32:42
Speaker 3: hundred and one thousand so just in this specific air base,
32:48
Speaker 3: and we were supposed to be alone for about seven
32:51
Speaker 3: to ten minutes. When you think that you're twenty nine
32:54
Speaker 3: against let's say one thousand and about eight to fifteen terrorists,
32:58
Speaker 3: it's a crazy operation.
33:03
Speaker 1: Everything goes according to the plan, a.
33:07
Speaker 11: Taxi all the way almost to the old terminal where
33:11
Speaker 11: the thermin where the hostages were held.
33:16
Speaker 1: While the plane is still taxiing, the assault force gets
33:19
Speaker 1: into the official looking vehicles to pose as our means motorcade.
33:24
Speaker 1: The next moments are critical. They have to get right
33:27
Speaker 1: up to the terminal without being detected.
33:32
Speaker 9: We jumped up with the Mercedes. The air was fresh
33:35
Speaker 9: right after the driving, slowly adjusting the speed to our surroundings.
33:46
Speaker 1: In the Mercedes, Arbetsa and Netta yahoo the commanders of
33:50
Speaker 1: the assault behind the rest of the force in land
33:54
Speaker 1: r of us, pretending to be an official escort.
33:59
Speaker 3: I think of these two feelings. One is a feeling
34:01
Speaker 3: of terrible loneliness, and the second is that I saw
34:06
Speaker 3: twenty nine shadows, shadows of people or soldiers holding their
34:12
Speaker 3: weapons in the darkness, and I saw to myself how
34:15
Speaker 3: many of these will stay elive in five minutes.
34:20
Speaker 1: The success of the entire operation depends on maintaining the
34:23
Speaker 1: surprise and on no one daring to stop the president's convoy.
34:37
Speaker 9: We look straight ahead and we see two Ugandan soldiers
34:40
Speaker 9: standing there.
34:41
Speaker 1: On a little board. The troops have only seconds to react.
34:52
Speaker 9: That's the coil, and the guy yells advance. I'll tell
34:56
Speaker 9: Ynny forget it, it's routine. But he hesitates for a
34:59
Speaker 9: second and then says take them out.
35:14
Speaker 3: There was the birth of non silence fire. And at
35:19
Speaker 3: this moment it was obvious that the element of thighs good.
35:26
Speaker 9: I thought, this is when the slaughter begins.
35:32
Speaker 1: The cover is blown. They're exposed and outnumbered and still
35:36
Speaker 1: more than two hundred meters away from their target. The
35:39
Speaker 1: hijackers could start executing hostages immediately. Hundreds of lights are
35:43
Speaker 1: on the line.
35:46
Speaker 7: There's a.
35:48
Speaker 9: We jumped off and started running, and as we're running,
35:51
Speaker 9: a Ugandan soldier opens fire right above us, and I
35:55
Speaker 9: shoot around, hitting in the chest and drops. It is
36:00
Speaker 9: the commercial any Ugandan soldiers will see is.
36:03
Speaker 1: Shot of them.
36:05
Speaker 9: There was massive shooting.
36:07
Speaker 1: The Ugandan soldiers are confused.
36:10
Speaker 15: Ugandan is In general all this view Israel and Israelis
36:15
Speaker 15: as a special people on earth, and any confrontation with
36:18
Speaker 15: them is as if you are confronting children, special children
36:24
Speaker 15: of God. So in that view, I also just we're
36:28
Speaker 15: saying the children of God has come, so anything to
36:32
Speaker 15: do with the God to Ugandans that was beyond the
36:35
Speaker 15: human control.
36:40
Speaker 1: Inside the terminal, the hostages are terrified. I don't know
36:44
Speaker 1: who is shooting or why.
36:47
Speaker 2: I thought the terrorists will shoot the Ugandan, the soldiers
36:51
Speaker 2: will shoot and we will be dead in a few minutes.
37:01
Speaker 5: They were shooting terribly, shooting all around, noises, shouting, lights everything.
37:09
Speaker 5: We were sure the jets end, it comes now.
37:14
Speaker 1: Everything now depends on how quickly the assault force can
37:17
Speaker 1: get to the hostages.
37:19
Speaker 3: It was critical to enter as fast as possibility.
37:26
Speaker 1: I mean, I offer is the first inside the terminal.
37:31
Speaker 3: I couldn't see my commander. I was sure that he
37:35
Speaker 3: already ran, and he disappeared in the darkness, and I
37:38
Speaker 3: must run as fast as they can in order to
37:41
Speaker 3: catch up with him and to cover his back.
37:43
Speaker 1: He is on his own with no cover.
37:50
Speaker 3: Someone was shooting in the terminal about five meters inside it,
37:53
Speaker 3: and he was holding an AK forty seven and he
37:57
Speaker 3: was shooting at me directly. You know, I could see
38:01
Speaker 3: his hands like this because he was shooting a huge
38:03
Speaker 3: burst of fire.
38:05
Speaker 1: His Special Forces training kicks into action.
38:10
Speaker 3: The bullets were went here and went there, and I
38:13
Speaker 3: think we didn't care. I just shot him accurately, three
38:16
Speaker 3: or four bullets, and you know, and that's it.
38:23
Speaker 1: The rest of the team catch up. As they moved
38:26
Speaker 1: through the terminal, they see two men dressed as civilians.
38:31
Speaker 1: They don't realize they are terrorists until one soldier notices
38:35
Speaker 1: a spark.
38:38
Speaker 3: They shouted, they have a grenade, and they shoot them in.
38:42
Speaker 1: The assault team is now together. They continue to sweep
38:44
Speaker 1: the terminal.
38:45
Speaker 3: There were two other terrorists. They turned their rifle to
38:48
Speaker 3: shoot me in the bag. Within five seconds, they were
38:57
Speaker 3: supposed to die twice.
39:01
Speaker 1: Next, the troops advanced into the passengers hall.
39:04
Speaker 3: We were scanning the whole room with our eyes, looking
39:07
Speaker 3: for more terrorists.
39:11
Speaker 1: The hostages have no idea who these soldiers are.
39:15
Speaker 2: It was very frightening moments. It looks like ours and
39:20
Speaker 2: we didn't understand what is going on.
39:23
Speaker 3: In my left hand, I put the loudspeaker. My right
39:27
Speaker 3: hand was still on the trigger and I said, everybody
39:30
Speaker 3: lie down. They were totally sure that they are now
39:34
Speaker 3: going to be executed.
39:38
Speaker 1: In the confusion, one hostage, Jean Jack my money excited
39:42
Speaker 1: to be rescued leaps to his feet.
39:47
Speaker 3: He jumped against my explicit instruction to lie down, and
39:53
Speaker 3: he was mistakenly considered to be a terrorist who is
39:56
Speaker 3: jumping in order to run and activate Bombo. Whatever it
40:01
Speaker 3: was shot.
40:03
Speaker 16: I shouted to him not to move, but he didn't
40:08
Speaker 16: hear me. There was already too much noise from the shooting.
40:12
Speaker 16: Then I wanted to pull him with his foot, but
40:19
Speaker 16: there was too many bullets around. He jumped to say,
40:25
Speaker 16: wonderful for saving me.
40:28
Speaker 1: Mamony is one of the three hostages killed in the crossfire.
40:35
Speaker 1: The hostages start to realize what is happening.
40:39
Speaker 3: They started to raise a little bit of their heads
40:41
Speaker 3: and just you know, to look from the bottom from
40:43
Speaker 3: the floor to look up. And suddenly they identified or
40:46
Speaker 3: they understood that they're not going to be killed, that
40:49
Speaker 3: someone came to rescue them. And it's an amazing moment.
40:57
Speaker 5: It's like if there was an angel coming out to
41:00
Speaker 5: the sky. It was such a surprise.
41:06
Speaker 1: By now the rest of the Israeli forces landed. He
41:09
Speaker 1: is battling the Ugandan army outside the Hercules. Pilots are
41:13
Speaker 1: waiting in the dark.
41:17
Speaker 11: They were shooting all over the place, tracers and I
41:20
Speaker 11: couldn't tell if they are aiming to also lost.
41:23
Speaker 6: One bullet in the right place.
41:24
Speaker 7: They open is growded.
41:26
Speaker 11: You can take off.
41:30
Speaker 1: Inside the terminal. The assault force needs to report to
41:32
Speaker 1: the unit's commander that the team has eliminated the hijacker's threat.
41:40
Speaker 9: I called on the radio and I say mission completed, yonie,
41:43
Speaker 9: I say complete it just like in the ear. The
41:47
Speaker 9: unit's communications officer picks up.
41:49
Speaker 1: He's yelling he has heard, he has heard, and Yahu
41:55
Speaker 1: Matcal's commander has been critically injured. There's no time to
42:00
Speaker 1: touches the news. They're still not out of danger.
42:03
Speaker 2: The soldiers told us to go out to follow the
42:08
Speaker 2: lights outside to the hercules, and we started to run.
42:14
Speaker 1: They only have minutes before the Ukeandan army regroups.
42:17
Speaker 15: Amim's reaction was furious. He regretted that he had been
42:26
Speaker 15: duped by a kind of belave that they were negotiating
42:29
Speaker 15: with the view to peaceful exchanges, yet the Israelis had
42:36
Speaker 15: been having a double planning. That kind of thing, to
42:40
Speaker 15: my view, annoyed him.
42:42
Speaker 1: Mud the hostages and the troops are still at least
42:46
Speaker 1: eight hours away from home in a hostile country.
42:50
Speaker 11: My issue was at that time to make sure that
42:53
Speaker 11: we can get the.
42:53
Speaker 1: Hell out of the evacuation must begin.
42:57
Speaker 11: We had to count the soldiers million times just to
43:01
Speaker 11: make sure we are not leaving anyone behind. It was
43:03
Speaker 11: so critical and when we felt everyone that was ready.
43:08
Speaker 1: To go, but not everyone is on the plane. Elaine
43:12
Speaker 1: Hartou's elderly mother was taken to a Yukandan hospital the
43:15
Speaker 1: night before.
43:17
Speaker 16: I said, I had a mother who was in hospital
43:20
Speaker 16: thirty miles away, of course, thirty kilometers away. Of course
43:25
Speaker 16: I knew they couldn't get her. There was no time
43:28
Speaker 16: for them to go and save her. But I told
43:31
Speaker 16: them to try to speak with youever they can. And
43:41
Speaker 16: the people on the plane told me that Africans usually
43:46
Speaker 16: are very respectful to old women.
43:51
Speaker 1: The Israeli force needs to make sure they can't be
43:53
Speaker 1: pursued by the Ugandan army. A demolition team moves in
43:58
Speaker 1: to destroy the entire fleet of mag fighter planes. On
44:07
Speaker 1: the way home, the troops learned that the unit's commander,
44:11
Speaker 1: Yoni net and Yahoo, has died.
44:14
Speaker 9: I went out to the back of one of the
44:16
Speaker 9: aircraft and I saw Yoanie lying there. It was covered
44:25
Speaker 9: with an aluminum blanket, and I looked at it and
44:32
Speaker 9: I think about Johnnie and in military operations the price
44:37
Speaker 9: is always human life.
44:46
Speaker 1: Two thousand miles away, the government in Jerusalem is waiting
44:50
Speaker 1: for an update.
44:52
Speaker 7: I was at Malfie. It was I think twelve o'clock
44:55
Speaker 7: at night. That was the first time that the silence
44:59
Speaker 7: was broken and we got the coot. It says that
45:03
Speaker 7: all of our command does fall somehow, I hoped, told
45:08
Speaker 7: me jan Oh, I love very much.
45:16
Speaker 1: While the Hercules planes are still in the air, news
45:18
Speaker 1: of the secret has leaked out.
45:22
Speaker 11: We turned on the long range radio and I put
45:24
Speaker 11: it on the loudspeaker so the special forces will hear.
45:27
Speaker 11: It started with a French television station that said Israeli
45:32
Speaker 11: commando just did this operation.
45:37
Speaker 1: After another seven hours journey and a week after the hijacking,
45:42
Speaker 1: the four planes carrying the troops, the hostages and the
45:46
Speaker 1: dead are finally back home in Israel.
45:57
Speaker 5: Everybody all over, our friend, all of them were there.
46:04
Speaker 2: It was unbelievable. I thought that the whole country is
46:08
Speaker 2: waiting for us in the airport, lots and lots and
46:13
Speaker 2: lots of people.
46:18
Speaker 1: The pilots can finally relax.
46:21
Speaker 11: When you have this kind of responsibility, you function and
46:27
Speaker 11: really so how you just function and you don't know how.
46:30
Speaker 11: I totally collapsed when I got home.
46:38
Speaker 1: But Madca, the secret Black Ops unit cannot take part
46:41
Speaker 1: in the celebrations for many years to come. Its missions
46:45
Speaker 1: and the operators who carry them out will remain in
46:48
Speaker 1: the shadows.
46:49
Speaker 3: Were isolated and taking aside because it was toxic at
46:52
Speaker 3: that time. I think that there was one moment later
46:55
Speaker 3: on that I understood that we did something. It's a extraordinary.
47:01
Speaker 1: I mean, took his revenge on Dora Block, the elderly
47:03
Speaker 1: hostage he was taken earlier to the hospital.
47:08
Speaker 6: After the operation ended.
47:11
Speaker 10: Kind of a retaliation, Idiomine gave an order to the
47:15
Speaker 10: doctor doctors at the hospital to kill her, and that
47:19
Speaker 10: what took place.
47:22
Speaker 5: We waited three years until.
47:26
Speaker 9: We had that.
47:27
Speaker 5: The remains body was there, found there and she was
47:31
Speaker 5: brought to Israel to be buried into Israel.
47:35
Speaker 7: They know this is a sacred mission. They felt that
47:41
Speaker 7: only they can do it, only they have to do it,
47:46
Speaker 7: only they have to take the risk. It was not
47:54
Speaker 7: good that worked over time.
47:56
Speaker 11: It was just we did a good job like we
47:58
Speaker 11: was expected to do.
48:01
Speaker 1: The daring raid and the courage of the troops who
48:04
Speaker 1: carried it out would be studied by forces all around
48:07
Speaker 1: the world. The server as a model for what special
48:10
Speaker 1: ops teams could achieve. The Israeli's overwhelming retaliation to the
48:14
Speaker 1: hijackers is an early international victory in the war on terrorism.
48:59
Speaker 4: Sh