'''Operation Yonatan''' was a hostage rescue mission performed by [[Israel]]i [[Sayeret Matkal]] special forces troops on the night of July 3 and early morning of July 4, 1976 to free hostages held on Air France Flight 139 at Entebbe Airport in [[Uganda]].during the planning and execution stages, the mission had been codenamed '''Operation Thunderbolt''' or '''Operation Thunderball''', but upon completion it was retroactively named ''Yonatan'' in memory of the raid's commander, Lieutenant Colonel '''Yonatan Netanyahu''', the only Israeli soldier killed in the raid, and also the elder brother of [[Benjamin Netanyahu]], who later became Israel's [[Prime Minister]]. ==Background==The crisis began six days earlier, when two [[Arab|Palestinians]] and two [[germany|Germans]] hijacked an Air France Airbus en route to [[Paris]] from [[Athens]]. The flight had originated in Lod, Israel, and nearly a third of its passengers were Israeli or non-Israeli [[Judaism|Jews]]. ==External links==*[http://www.yoni.org.il/ Yoni] Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu official memorial site