{"id":524563,"date":"2026-07-04T07:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T07:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/524563\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T07:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T07:30:14","slug":"rescued-at-entebbe-50-years-ago-former-child-hostage-feels-her-experience-resonating-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/524563\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescued at Entebbe 50 years ago, former child hostage feels her experience resonating today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ella Rosenkovitch was just five and a half years old when terrorists hijacked her family\u2019s flight to Paris and diverted it to Entebbe, Uganda, on June 27, 1976.<\/p>\n

But 50 years later, memories of the week she spent as a hostage before Israel\u2019s legendary Operation Thunderbolt<\/a> remain vivid \u2014 so much so that they motivated her to campaign for the return of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a small child at the time, and there are a lot of details that I only learned years later,\u201d the 55-year-old Jerusalem resident told The Times of Israel in a telephone interview. \u201cBut I remember the most fateful moments very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the day of the hijacking, Rosenkovitch was on Air France Flight 139 with her parents and 10-year-old brother on a trip to visit her grandparents in Paris. Another brother, age 16, didn\u2019t join the trip and remained in Israel alone. The flight, as expected, made a scheduled stop in Athens to pick up additional passengers.<\/p>\n

But there, four terrorist hijackers \u2014 two Palestinians and two Germans \u2014 boarded the plane and forcefully diverted it, first to Libya and then to Uganda. Chaos erupted as the hijackers separated mothers and children from the rest of the passengers and moved them to the front rows of the aircraft, Rosenkovitch recalled.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI remember that I didn\u2019t understand what was happening, so I asked my brother,\u201d Rosenkovitch said. \u201cHe said he didn\u2019t know, but I still remember the terrified look on his face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA cheering crowd at Ben-Gurion Airport raises a soldier in the rescue squad that freed the hijacked hostages from Uganda earlier in the day, July 4, 1976. In the background is the C-130 transport plane which took part in the raid. The rescuer\u2019s face is obscured for security reasons. (AP Photo\/Pool)<\/p>\n

Her next memory is of the moment the hostages disembarked at Entebbe International Airport, after a refueling stop in Benghazi, Libya. Her mother cracked a dry joke that would be repeated for decades inside the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018Kids, we\u2019ve landed in Africa. I\u2019ve always wanted to visit Africa,’\u201d Rosenkovitch recalled. \u201cThe way she said it sounded so wise and clever at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the hostages were evacuated to a cavernous old terminal building at the airport, the hijackers announced their demands: $5 million and the release of 53 pro-Palestinian terrorists. If their demands were not met within three days, they said, they would start killing hostages.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tElla Rosenkovitch as a child in the 1970s, before she was on a plane hijacked to Uganda in 1976 (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Daily life as hostages<\/p>\n

As negotiations dragged on, an uneasy routine emerged. The hostages slept on mattresses strewn out on the floor of the airport terminal, trying to remain calm as they awaited their fates. They were fed three substantial meals a day, with meat and rice and \u201cthe biggest bananas I\u2019d ever seen,\u201d Rosenkovitch said.<\/p>\n

As Rosenkovitch tells it, she was the youngest of about 15 children and teenagers who were among the more than 250 hostages held in the cavernous old terminal building at Entebbe. She enjoyed playing with some of the French kids until they were released back to France on June 30 and July 1. After that, only a group of 106 mainly Israeli nationals remained in captivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sort of a fun time, actually,\u201d Rosenkovitch recalled. \u201cOur parents worked very hard to keep the children calm and occupied, and to avoid showing fear. They organized activities and drawing activities for us, and put together a small library from the kids\u2019 books we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tShai Gross, 6, returns to Israel after Operation Thunderbolt, the Israeli rescue of over 100 hostages from the Entebbe Airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976, after an airplane hijacking by Palestinian terrorists. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

One young man, Jean-Jacques Mimouni, spent hours playing all sorts of games with the older kids, Rosenkovitch remembered. He would later be killed in the rescue operation.<\/p>\n

Rosenkovitch recalled playing outdoors with a French girl named Sandrine, kicking around an empty Nescaf\u00e9 can and feeling, as a child, strangely liberated from everyday rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father told me that I asked him several times if we were going to do the same thing tomorrow, and that I was happy when he said yes,\u201d she said. \u201cThat says a lot about how the parents managed to get us through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

But sanitary conditions deteriorated as the days passed, and by midweek, some hostages had become ill. Rosenkovitch didn\u2019t have a change of clothes and wore the same dress for the entire seven days, she recalled.<\/p>\n

Idi Amin, the Ugandan president who threw his support behind the hijackers, would come to visit the hostages on an almost daily basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was such a big man, wearing a uniform,\u201d Rosenkovitch remembered. \u201cHe seemed terribly scary to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUgandan president Idi Amin, wearing hat, talks on July 4, 1976, in Nairobi, Kenya with several hostages who were released by their terrorist hijackers at Uganda\u2019s Entebbe airport earlier in the week. (AP Photo\/africapix)<\/p>\n

A daring rescue mission<\/p>\n

The hostages had no idea that four Israeli C-130 Hercules transport aircraft landed without lights at 11 p.m. on July 3, so they \u2014 and the entire world \u2014 were shocked by what happened next.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t forget waking up to gunshots that night,\u201d Rosenkovitch said. \u201cWe were terribly scared and didn\u2019t understand what was happening. We didn\u2019t know it was the IDF, and we thought the terrorists had come in to finish us off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosenkovitch\u2019s parents moved their mattresses on top of the kids to try to protect them from bullets. \u201cIt was only for a few seconds, but it felt like a long time,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt like I was suffocating under them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then they heard shouts in Hebrew. \u201cThey yelled, \u2018Lie down on the floor. Don\u2019t get up, don\u2019t get up.\u2019 Then we realized that they had come to rescue us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tChief of Staff Lt. Gen. Mordechai \u2018Motta\u2019 Gur gestures at a press conference in Tel Aviv, on July 8, 1976, during which he gave details of the Entebbe airport raid. (AP Photo\/Nash)<\/p>\n

What followed was chaos, Rosenkovitch recalled. The commandos ordered the hostages to run toward the waiting aircraft on the dark tarmac.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started looking for my sandals, but I couldn\u2019t find a single one,\u201d she remembered. \u201cMy father just grabbed me in his arms and we ran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her next memory is of seeing fire on both sides of the airfield \u2014 she later understood that these were Ugandan Air Force jets that the IDF was destroying to prevent pursuit. The flight was a blur, Rosenkovitch said, and after a brief stop in Nairobi, Kenya, everyone fell asleep in exhaustion on the way home.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tAn emotional family reunion upon the return to Israel of the hostages from the Air France flight hijacked to Entebbe, Uganda, July 4, 1976. (Israel Government Press Office)<\/p>\n

Out of the 106 hostages, three were killed, including Mimouni. One was left in Uganda, and approximately 10 were wounded. The entire operation lasted just 53 minutes, as the IDF took out seven hijackers, 45 Ugandan soldiers, and 11 Ugandan MiG jets.<\/p>\n

Five IDF commandos were wounded during the operation, and one was killed \u2014 Yoni Netanyahu, the commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit and brother of current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The successful rescue mission, carried out on the day the United States celebrated its bicentennial, astounded the world and quickly became the stuff of Israeli legend.<\/p>\n

Living in the aftermath<\/p>\n

Rosenkovitch has seen photographs and news footage of her plane\u2019s arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, with the huge crowds and celebrations \u2014 but she doesn\u2019t remember it. She was probably in complete shock at the time, she said.<\/p>\n

But she does remember her arrival back home.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tDefense Minister Shimon Peres (r) with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin welcoming the released Entebbe hostages upon their return to Israel on July 4, 1976. (Defense Ministry Archives)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole neighborhood is waiting for us outside,\u201d Rosenkovitch said. \u201cAll of the neighbors were extremely concerned, and our entire entrance was filled with signs and greetings. The house was full of flowers. My brother came back to us after friends of our parents took care of him during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, Rosenkovitch\u2019s father decided he needed closure on an unfinished matter.\u00a0Four days after returning to Israel, her father insisted the family board another flight to Paris and complete the vacation terrorists had tried to destroy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where he got the strength from, but he decided that we would fly to Paris again to visit as we had planned,\u201d she recalled. \u201cFour days later, we went back to France to see my grandparents, after everything we\u2019d been through. We had an amazing trip, and then we returned to Israel and continued life as usual. There was no psychological therapy or counseling or anything like that, but it was an incredible healing process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tElla Rosenkovitch today (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Rosenkovitch is still in touch with some of the Entebbe children \u2014 now in their 50s and 60s \u2014 through a WhatsApp group they created in 2016 after attending events marking the 40th anniversary of the rescue.<\/p>\n

Most of the children held at Entebbe went on to lead ordinary lives despite their ordeal, she said. Rosenkovitch built a career for herself in journalism, married, and raised a family.<\/p>\n

But in recent years, something has shifted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story of the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, really affected me,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we went through was nothing compared to what they went through, but I felt that Israel had to do everything to get them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2026, Israel retrieved the body of Ran Gvili, the last of the 251 hostages kidnapped to Gaza during the invasion. In all, 166 hostages were rescued or released alive, and the remains of 85 were returned, some of whom were dead upon their abduction.<\/p>\n

Rosenkovitch\u00a0joined rallies organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and, despite her naturally reserved personality, even addressed demonstrators from the stage. Something inside her compelled her to speak out, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was only five years old at the time, but lately, I think about my captivity all the time,\u201d Rosenkovitch said. \u201cAfter everything I went through, I believe the most important thing is that our country never gives up on you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ella Rosenkovitch was just five and a half years old when terrorists hijacked her family\u2019s flight to Paris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[234732,42,207288,43,239842,40,38,41,39,234733],"class_list":["post-524563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-entebbe","tag-headlines","tag-idi-amin","tag-news","tag-operation-entebbe","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-yoni-netanyahu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}