– Bullet scars preserved –
Uganda and Israel are planning the memorial to be one of reconciliation, preserving the bullet scars in the walls of the old terminal at Entebbe, still the airport for the capital Kampala, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) to the north.
Earlier this month, some of the retired commandos who took part in the raid visited the scene of the extraordinary rescue, standing alongside Ugandan officials, including the son of their then enemy, dictator Idi Amin.
“We had short time to prepare for it,” said Ofer, noting the more than 3,500 kilometres (2,200 miles) between Uganda and Israel, with a 48-hour ultimatum before the gunmen would start killing hostages. “The clock was ticking away after the terrorists gave their ultimatum.”
An Air France plane en route from Tel Aviv to Paris had been hijacked by two Palestinians and two Germans in Athens, and ordered to fly to Entebbe with 250 passengers aboard.
Uganda’s Amin, who had cut ties with Israel in favour of cash handouts from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, allowed the hijacked plane to land.
On arrival, Jewish and Israeli hostages were separated and others freed, leaving about 100 hostages and crew members guarded by the hijackers.
Neither the hijackers nor Ugandan troops ever expected special forces could stage a raid from so far away, taking the airport by complete surprise.
“We fanned out without any one realising that we were an enemy force,” Ofer said, describing how they rushed out of the plane after touching down in the dark. The initial force roared out of the plane in a black Mercedes that looked like Amin’s personal car, but their cover was blown when they had to shoot a Ugandan guard.
“Within minutes of our arrival, we were able to arrive at the terminal, killed the terrorists and within an hour we were on our way back to Israel,” Ofer added.
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