Will there be 'Operation Uganda 2' to free the kidnapped? Israel, ready to deploy a commando as in the famous rescue of '76

Israel assures that it will maintain the blockade in Gaza until Hamas releases the hostages. “No electrical switch will be turned on, no hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the kidnapped Israelis are returned home,” reads the message published this Thursday in X by the Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Israel Katz.

The number of hostages is unclear. Israel estimates that there are up to 200 kidnapped people, but Hamas and Islamic Jihad claim that there are around 130 people.. The UN has demanded that Hamas immediately release all of them. The truth is that its existence complicates and limits the operation that Israel is preparing against the Palestinian guerrilla, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as by other powers, and, of course, Israel.

What options does Netanyahu have?

The return alive of the kidnapped is now the priority for many Israelis. But the context – which the Israeli Government understands as a response to the barbaric Hamas offensive – and their number rule out the possibility of an exchange.. In 2011, Israel exchanged hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was detained for five years.

This is how things open up the option of a rescue. There is a precedent for this. In 1976, Tel Aviv carried out a hostage rescue mission in Uganda.. A plane was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists. It was Operation Entebbe or Thunderbolt, also known as Operation Uganda, that established a model for Israel in handling hostage situations: neither negotiate nor compromise.. The Israeli Executive already has a command ready like that of that 1976 rescue.

Air France Flight 139

On June 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300, was carrying 248 passengers and twelve crew members from Athens to Paris, but the plane came from Tel Aviv.. At noon, the plane was hijacked by two Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-External Maneuvers (PFLP-ME) and two Germans from the German Revolutionary Cells.

The plane was diverted to Benghazi, Libya. He was there for seven hours to refuel.. The next day, the aircraft left the Libyan airport and landed at Entebbe airport, in Uganda.. There the kidnappers were joined by four others supported by the pro-Palestinian forces of Ugandan President Idi Amin.

What did the kidnappers want?

The group demanded the release of 40 Palestinians detained in Israel and another thirteen imprisoned in Kenya, France, Switzerland and West Germany.. If their demands were not made effective, they would begin killing hostages from July 1. They divided the abductees into two groups, separating into one the 105 who were Israeli citizens or non-Israeli Jews.

The terrorists freed the non-Jewish passengers, forcing them (some refused to abandon the rest) to board another Air France plane that had arrived in Entebbe for that purpose.. In the end, 85 Israelis or Jews remained detained, plus another twenty people, most of them crew members of the plane.. The kidnappers persisted in threatening to kill them if Israel did not agree to their demands.

29 commands

Israel tried diplomatic means to obtain the release of the hostages while preparing a military operation. On July 1, the date on which the deadline given by the kidnappers expired, the Israeli government offered to negotiate with them on the condition of extending the deadline until July 4.. With the mediation of Idi Amin, the extension was achieved. It was essential for the Israeli commando to have time to reach Entebbe.

On July 3, Israel's cabinet approved the rescue mission. Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, began to prepare the rescue based on the details provided by the hostages released in Paris.. Among them, a Jew with military training who gave information about the number and type of weapons of the terrorists was released by mistake.. In addition, it turned out that an Israeli company was involved in the construction of the Entebbe terminal in the 1960s and 1970s.. With his help, a partial replica of the building was built.

Benjamin Netanyahu's brother

Israel displaced a hundred people on land. The commando had to assault the terminal and rescue the hostages. It was made up of 29 soldiers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu (elder brother of today's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). They were members of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit and elements of the parachute reconnaissance units and the Golani Brigade.. In addition, a reinforcement team was to, among other things, secure the area and destroy the MiG-17 squadron of the Ugandan Air Force on the ground.

Israeli commandos stormed the terminal on July 4, successfully rescuing 102 people and killing all the terrorists and several Ugandan soldiers.. Three hostages lost their lives in the crossfire. Netanyahu also died.

Do what we did in Uganda in Gaza?

Precedent suggests that Israel could opt for a decisive ground attack to secure the release of the hostages. This is reflected in the recent communication between the Israeli Prime Minister and the American President, Joe Biden, in which the Jew insisted on the need for a ground operation in Gaza.

By the way, the Israeli president also served in Sayeret Matkal, participating in several missions, including the rescue of the hijacked Sabena flight 571, during which he was shot in the shoulder. This elite unit still exists and has specialized in hostage rescue and reconnaissance missions.

Experts cited by The Telegram newspaper affirm that Israel will turn to Sayeret Matkal for his experience, but also to the Yamam special forces unit of the Israeli national police. The United States has offered to assist hostage rescue missions with planning and intelligence support.

Hostage crisis of unprecedented magnitude

“Israel has perfected the anti-terrorist hostage rescue mission.. “These units have been collecting intelligence and working closely with Mossad and Israel's Shin Bet service,” said Aaron Cohen, an Israeli special forces expert.

Any rescue mission risks causing the hostages to be executed at any moment

But things are much more complicated in Gaza than in that airport terminal. The enclave will supposedly be full of traps and defended by terrorist fighters. Enclave or enclaves because Tel Aviv does not have, as far as is known, information on whether the hostages are being held in a single location.

How many, where and how

What we do know is the enormous difference, numbers in hand, between what was in 1976 and what is now.. In Entebbe there were a few terrorists and several Ugandan soldiers; now there are hundreds of Hamas militants. In that kidnapping, three Jewish hostages and a member of the commando died; now the casualties could multiply.

Finally, what Israel now faces is a kind of war, unequal, but war. This is how the country feels. Given that Hamas has already threatened to begin executing its prisoners in response to Israeli attacks on Gaza, any rescue mission risks resulting in the hostages being executed at any moment.