{"id":538204,"date":"2026-07-12T20:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538204\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T20:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:34:11","slug":"entebbe-at-50-israel-honors-rescue-mission-that-shaped-its-pledge-to-bring-every-hostage-home-israel-jewish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538204\/","title":{"rendered":"Entebbe at 50: Israel honors rescue mission that shaped its pledge to bring every hostage home – Israel & Jewish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

(July 12, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n

Fifty years after one of the most daring hostage rescue missions in modern military history, Israel\u2019s leaders gathered on Sunday at the President\u2019s Residence to commemorate \u201cOperation Yonatan,\u201d drawing parallels between the 1976 Entebbe rescue and Israel\u2019s enduring commitment to bring its citizens home.<\/p>\n

President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog hosted the state ceremony in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, veterans of the operation, former hostages and their families, bereaved families and young IDF soldiers.<\/p>\n

Among those attending were former Hamas hostage Noa Argamani, her father, Yaakov, and the IDF soldier who participated in her rescue from central Gaza\u2019s Nuseirat refugee camp in June 2024.<\/p>\n

A mission that changed history<\/p>\n

\u201cOperation Yonatan,\u201d as the Entebbe rescue mission was later named, was carried out on the night of July 3-4, 1976, after Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Air France flight carrying 248 passengers and diverted it to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The terrorists separated the Israeli and Jewish passengers from the others, releasing most non-Israelis while holding the remaining hostages under threat of execution.<\/p>\n

Israeli commandos flew more than 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) to Uganda, rescuing more than 100 hostages in a surprise assault that has since become one of the most celebrated military operations in history.<\/p>\n

Three hostages were killed during the rescue, while a fourth, Dora Bloch, who had been taken to a Kampala hospital, was later murdered on the orders of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. The operation\u2019s commander, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, was the only Israeli soldier killed in the mission, which was later named in his honor.<\/p>\n

The ceremony opened with relatives lighting five memorial candles in memory of those who lost their lives in Uganda. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his brother Iddo lit the candle honoring their brother, Yonatan.<\/p>\n

Throughout the evening, veterans recounted the tension leading up to the mission. Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency and a veteran of the operation, recalled his mother\u2019s anxious phone calls. Amos Eran, who served as director-general of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin\u2019s Office in 1976, described sleepless nights awaiting news, while Dr. Ephraim Sneh reflected on serving as one of the operation\u2019s military doctors.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Prime<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, join President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog at the state ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of \u201cOperation Yonatan\u201d at the President\u2019s Residence in Jerusalem on July 12, 2026. Photo by Ma\u2019ayan Toaf\/GPO.<\/p>\n

\u2018There is no limit to our responsibility\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are events that are greater than any single figure, place, or time,\u201d Herzog said. \u201cOperation Yonatan does not belong to any one person or group. It transcends every disagreement. This is a legacy of courage and daring that echoes, and will continue to echo, for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling the operation \u201ca moral declaration,\u201d Herzog said it established a principle that continues to define Israel today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are borders to the state, but there is no limit to our responsibility,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever far you may be, however difficult the road, however dark the place, you are not alone\u2014we will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu described Entebbe as proof that \u201cthe impossible\u201d can become possible.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Entebbe\u2019 has become synonymous with an extraordinarily bold operation that turned the impossible into the possible,\u201d he said. \u201cThis unprecedented operation brought our hostages home from the heart of Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drawing a direct connection to Israel\u2019s recent military campaigns against Hamas and Iran\u2019s regional proxies, the prime minister said the operation demonstrated that \u201cit is possible, and necessary, to stand firm against bloodthirsty terrorists, to strike them and to defeat them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Israel has \u201cturned the tables\u201d since the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, striking enemies \u201cfrom Gaza to Yemen, from Lebanon to Iran,\u201d and preventing what he described as an immediate existential threat posed by Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the loss of his older brother, who commanded the rescue force, Netanyahu added: \u201cThere is not a day that I don\u2019t think about Yoni. There is not a day that I don\u2019t consult with Yoni.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister also paid tribute to the operation\u2019s leaders, including then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Defense Minister Shimon Peres, Chief of Staff Motta Gur, Chief Infantry and Paratrooper Officer Dan Shomron, Air Force Commander Benny Peled and the commanders and soldiers who carried out the mission under extraordinary circumstances.<\/p>\n

Recalling his own service in the IDF\u2019s Sayeret Matkal special forces unit, Netanyahu reflected on participating in \u201cOperation Sabena,\u201d the 1972 rescue of hijacked passengers at Lod Airport, and described the extraordinary preparation and courage that made the Entebbe mission possible just four years later. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"IDF<\/p>\n

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir addresses the state ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of \u201cOperation Yonatan\u201d at the President\u2019s Residence in Jerusalem on July 12, 2026. Photo by Sharon Altshul.<\/p>\n

The enduring promise of \u2018habayta\u2019<\/p>\n

Zamir likewise drew a direct line from Entebbe to Israel\u2019s more recent hostage rescue operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween Entebbe and Nuseirat, between the rescue of the October 7 hostages and those freed at Entebbe, between Yoni and Arnon, we march with resolve and a sense of historic responsibility,\u201d he said, referring to Yonatan Netanyahu and Chief Insp. Arnon Zamora, who was killed during the June 2024 rescue of four hostages in Nuseirat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been our guiding compass since that night in Entebbe, and all the more so since October 7,\u201d Zamir said. \u201cWe, and we alone, are responsible for the lives and safety of our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The emotional ceremony brought many veterans to tears as they watched a short film featuring children rescued from the hijacked Air France flight alongside images of those same survivors, now in their 50s, reunited five decades later.<\/p>\n

Throughout the evening, one message echoed repeatedly: habayta\u2014coming home.<\/p>\n

Survivors recalled hearing Hebrew spoken by Israeli commandos as they were carried to safety. Family members of those rescued in Uganda embraced the veterans who had saved their lives half a century earlier.<\/p>\n

Speakers agreed that the legacy of \u201cOperation Yonatan\u201d remains a defining principle of the State of Israel: that no citizen should ever be abandoned, and that the country\u2019s commitment to rescue and protect its people endures across generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(July 12, 2026 \/ JNS) Fifty years after one of the most daring hostage rescue missions in modern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-538204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538204","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=538204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}