Editing Entebbe raid (section)

==Hijacking==
{{Infobox aircraft occurrence
| occurrence_type = Hijacking
| name            = Air France Flight 139
| image           = Airbus A300B4-203, Air France AN0792167.jpg
| caption         = The [[Air France]] [[Airbus A300]] involved, at [[Charles de Gaulle Airport]] in 1980
| date            = 27 June 1976
| type            = Hijacking
| site            = Greek airspace
| origin          = [[Ben Gurion International Airport|Ben Gurion Int'l Airport]], Israel
| stopover        = [[Ellinikon International Airport|Athens (Ellinikon) Int'l Airport]], Greece
| destination     = [[Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport|Charles De Gaulle Int'l Airport]], France
| fatalities      = 4
| injuries        = 10
| aircraft_type   = [[Airbus A300|Airbus A300B4-203]]
| operator        = [[Air France]]
| tail_number     = F-BVGG
| occupants       = 260
| passengers      = 248
| crew            = 12
| survivors       = 256
}}

On 27 June 1976, [[Air France]] Flight 139, an [[Airbus A300|Airbus A300B4-203]] [[Aircraft registration|registered]] as {{Airreg|F|BVGG}} with [[serial number]] 019, departed from [[Tel Aviv]], Israel, carrying 246 mainly Jewish and [[Israelis|Israeli]] passengers and a crew of 12.<ref name="Rosenkovitch">{{cite news |author=Lavie |first=Aviv |date=31 July 2003 |title=Surviving the myth |url=http://www.haaretz.com/surviving-the-myth-1.95789 |access-date=23 September 2014 |work=Haaretz}}</ref><ref name="How the Rescue Took Place">{{cite news |url=http://www.jta.org/1976/07/06/archive/how-the-rescue-took-place |title=How the Rescue Took Place |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency| date=5 July 1976 |access-date=23 September 2014}}</ref> The plane flew to Athens, Greece, where it picked up an additional 58 passengers, including four hijackers.<ref name="General Dan Shomron" />{{#tag:ref|Sources state varying numbers of passengers, between 228 and 246; the higher figure is taken from ''The New York Times''. |group="nb"|name="PassengerNote"}} It departed for Paris at 12:30&nbsp;pm. Just after takeoff, the flight was [[Aircraft hijacking|hijacked]] by two [[Palestinian people|Palestinians]] from the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations]] (PFLP-EO), and by two Germans, [[Wilfried Böse]] and [[Brigitte Kuhlmann]], from the German [[Revolutionary Cells (German group)|Revolutionary Cells]]. The hijackers diverted the flight to [[Benghazi]], Libya.<ref name="Entebbe's unsung hero.">{{cite news |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3270314,00.html|title=Special: Entebbe's unsung hero.|last=Ben|first=Eyal|date=3 July 2006|work=Ynetnews|access-date=4 July 2009}}</ref> There it was held on the ground for seven hours for refuelling. During that time the hijackers released British-born Israeli citizen Patricia Martell, who pretended to have a [[miscarriage]].<ref name="Mossad took photos" /><ref name="Entebbe Thirty Years On">{{cite news |url=http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/enteb_2.html|title=Entebbe Thirty Years On: Mancunian On Board|work=Jewish Telegraph|access-date=22 September 2014}}</ref> The plane left Benghazi and at 3:15&nbsp;pm on the 28 June, more than 24 hours after the flight's original departure, it arrived at [[Entebbe International Airport]] in Uganda.<ref name="Entebbe's unsung hero." />

===Situation at Uganda's Entebbe International Airport===
At Entebbe, the four hijackers were joined by at least four others, supported by the forces of Uganda's president, [[Idi Amin]].<ref name="auto">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm |title=1976: Israelis rescue Entebbe hostages |work=BBC News |access-date=27 December 2012 |archive-date=23 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023233100/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm |url-status=live |date=4 July 1976}}</ref> The hijackers transferred the passengers to the transit hall of the disused former airport terminal where they kept them under guard for the following days. Amin came to visit the hostages almost on a daily basis, updating them on developments and promising to use his efforts to have them freed through negotiations.<ref name="Rosenkovitch"/>

On 28 June, a PFLP-EO hijacker issued a declaration and formulated their demands. In addition to a ransom of US$5&nbsp;million for the release of the airplane, they demanded the release of 53 Palestinian and pro-Palestinian militants, 40 of whom were prisoners in Israel.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dunstan|first1=Simon|title=Entebbe: The Most Daring Raid of Israel's Special Forces|date=2011|publisher=Rosen|location=New York|pages=17–18}}</ref> They threatened that if these demands were not met, they would begin to kill hostages on 1 July 1976.<ref name="Detailed Story">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19760713&id=7-QhAAAAIBAJ&pg=3641,5254231|title=Detailed Story Of Dramatic Israeli Raid|work=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|date=13 July 1976|access-date=22 September 2014}}</ref>

===Separation of hostages===
On 29 June, after Ugandan soldiers had opened an entrance to a room next to the crowded waiting hall by destroying a separating wall, the hijackers separated the Israelis (including those holding dual citizenship) from the other hostages{{#tag:ref|Claims by various authors that the separation was made between Jews and non-Jews<ref>{{cite web|title=1976 Operation Entebbe|url=http://www.idfblog.com/about-the-idf/history-of-the-idf/1976-operation-entebbe/|website=IDF blog|publisher=Israeli Defense Forces|access-date=23 September 2014|archive-date=12 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012105140/https://www.idfblog.com/about-the-idf/history-of-the-idf/1976-operation-entebbe/|url-status=dead}}</ref> are in conflict with eyewitness accounts<ref name="Freed Hostages Tell Their Story">{{cite news |title=Freed Hostages Tell Their Story|url=http://www.jta.org/1976/07/02/archive/freed-hostages-tell-their-story|access-date=23 September 2014|agency=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=2 July 1976}}</ref><ref name="Ofer1976"/><ref name=Moufflet>{{cite book|last1=Moufflet|first1=Claude|title=Otages à Kampala|date=1976|publisher=Presses de la Cité|page=82|language=fr}}</ref><ref name="Epstein"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Jerozolimski|first1=Ana|title=Ada Lazarovitz (46), que hace 30 años fuera una de las rehenes en el avión de Air France secuestrado por terroristas en Entebbe, recuerda su liberación.|url=http://letras-uruguay.espaciolatino.com/jerozolimski/ada_lazarovitz_46.htm|website=Espacio Latino|publisher=Semanario Hebreo|access-date=23 September 2014|language=es|date=13 July 2006}}</ref> and later they were expressly disclaimed by several former hostages as a "myth" or a manipulation by "sensation-hungry journalists and film-makers."<ref name="Hartuv"/><ref name="Rosenkovitch"/><ref name=Goldberg/> |group="nb"|name="SeparationNote"}} and told them to move to the adjoining room.<ref name="Ofer1976">{{cite book |author=Ofer |first=Yehuda |title=Operation Thunder: The Entebbe Raid. The Israeli's Own Story |date=1976 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-052321-8 |pages=46–47}}</ref> As they did so, a [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] survivor showed hijacker Wilfried Böse a [[Identification of inmates in Nazi concentration camps|camp registration number tattooed]] on his arm. Böse protested "I'm no Nazi!&nbsp;... I am an idealist."<ref>{{cite magazine|first=David |last=Tinnin |title=Like Father |magazine=Time |date=8 August 1977 |page=2 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915234-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101018032711/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C915234-2%2C00.html |archive-date=18 October 2010 |url-status=dead}} – A review of ''Hitler's Children'' by Julian Becker; {{cite book |first=David |last=Frum |year=2000 |title=How We Got Here: The 70s the Decade That Brought You Modern Life – For Better or Worse |url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum |url-access=registration |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-04196-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/342 342]}}</ref> In addition, five non-Israeli hostages – two ultra-orthodox Jewish couples<ref name="Rosenkovitch"/> from the US and Belgium<ref name="Hartuv"/> and a French resident of Israel – were forced to join the Israeli group.<ref name="Epstein"/> According to Monique Epstein Khalepski, the French hostage among the five, the captors had singled them out for questioning and suspected them of hiding their Israeli identities.<ref name="Epstein">{{cite news |date=11 July 1976 |title=La aventura del secuestro de Entebbe, contada por una protagonista |trans-title=The adventure of the Entebbe kidnapping, told by a protagonist |url=http://elpais.com/diario/1976/07/11/sociedad/205884021_850215.html |access-date=23 September 2014 |work=El País |language=es}}</ref> On the other hand, according to French hostage Michel Cojot-Goldberg, the captors failed to identify at least one Israeli among the passengers who was a military officer with dual citizenship then using his non-Israeli passport and he was later freed as part of the second release of non-Israeli hostages.<ref name=Goldberg>{{cite book|last1=Goldberg|first1=Michel|title=Namesake|date=1984|publisher=Corgi|page=122}}</ref> US citizen Janet Almog, Frenchwoman Jocelyne Monier (whose husband or boyfriend was Israeli),<ref name="New York Magazine">{{cite news |author=Ross |first=Philip |date=2 August 1976 |title=The Illustrated Story of the Great Israeli Rescue |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-QCAAAAMBAJ&q=%22jocelyne+monier%22&pg=PA38 |access-date=23 September 2014 |work=New York Magazine}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://hfj.stparchive.com/Archive/HFJ/HFJ09101976P06.php|title=Almogs Retell Hijack Tale|work=Heritage Florida Jewish News|date=10 September 1976|access-date=23 September 2014|archive-date=3 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203195615/http://hfj.stparchive.com/Archive/HFJ/HFJ09101976P06.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> and French-Israeli dual citizen Jean-Jacques Mimouni, whose name had not been called up during the reading of the original passport-based list, reportedly joined the Israeli hostage group by their own choice.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Prince-Gibson |first1=Eetta |date=7 March 2013 |title=Entebbe's Forgotten Dead |url=http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/126190/entebbes-forgotten-dead?all=1 |access-date=23 September 2014 |work=Tablet}}</ref>

===Release of most non-Israeli hostages===
On 30 June, the hijackers released 48 hostages. The released were picked from among the non-Israeli group – mainly elderly and sick passengers and mothers with children. Forty-seven of them were flown by a chartered Air France [[Boeing 747]] out of Entebbe to Paris, and one passenger was treated in hospital for a day.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Saul|first=David|title=Operation Thunderbolt: Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History|publisher=Back Bay Books|year=2017|isbn=978-0-316-24539-5}}</ref> On 1 July, after the Israeli government had conveyed its agreement to negotiations, the hostage-takers extended their deadline to noon on 4 July and released another group of 100 non-Israeli captives who again were flown to Paris a few hours later. Among the 106 hostages staying behind with their captors at Entebbe airport were the 12 members of the Air France crew who refused to leave,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kaplan |first=David |date=3 August 2006 |title=A historic hostage-taking revisited |url=https://www.jpost.com/features/a-historic-hostage-taking-revisited |access-date=4 July 2018 |website=The Jerusalem Post}}</ref> about ten young French passengers, and the Israeli group of some 84 people.<ref name=MHS /><ref name="Hostages freed as israelis raid uganda airport" /><ref name="Entebbe's unsung hero." /><ref name="The Entebbe Rescue Mission">{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/entebbe.html|title=The Entebbe Rescue Mission|work=Israel Defense Forces|publisher=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=4 July 2009}}</ref>