A newly released set of Israeli government archives sheds light on the cabinet's decision-making process ahead of the 1976 Entebbe rescue operation, showing the shift from pursuing a negotiated hostage release to approving a military raid — despite high risk, according to a Times of Israel report.
The documents, reported by The Times of Israel ahead of the 50th anniversary of the operation on July 4, show that while the government initially pursued a diplomatic track to free the 106 hostages taken by Palestinian and German hijackers to Entebbe, Uganda, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's cabinet gradually authorized planning for a military raid. The archive reveals that the turning point came when intelligence suggested the hijackers were preparing to separate the hostages by nationality, with Israelis and Jews facing a distinct threat. The decision to launch the raid — later executed by Sayeret Matkal commandos with a near-perfect rescue record — was taken against the backdrop of failed negotiations with Uganda's President Idi Amin. The Zioneer has previously reported multiple angles of the Entebbe story, including survivor accounts and the return of participants to the site, but these specific cabinet-level archives are newly surfaced.
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