In late June 1976, an Air France flight from Athens to Paris was hijacked. Some hostages were released, but all the Israelis and French Jews were kept at gunpoint. The plane ended up at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda, and the terrorist hijackers, with the support of Ugandan president Idi Amin, demanded the release of 40 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel (and various other detainees held by various other countries), or they would kill their captives.
On July 3, Israeli Defense Forces staged a daring raid on Entebbe to rescue the hostages. The commandos were led by Shomron, an IDF Brigadier General and commander of the infantry. All the hijackers were killed; three hostages and a commando were also killed, but 102 hostages were rescued.
The legendary raid spawned several films. “I like in particular the movie in which Charles Bronson portrayed me,” Shomron said later (Raid on Entebbe, 1977). But he emphasized more the important lesson learned: the hijacking was “during a difficult period for the war on terror, which operated then on the system of hostage-taking,” he said. “We were busy in those days to convince the world that one does not bow to terrorism.” Shomron later served as the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and retired as a Lt. General — the IDF’s highest rank. He died February 26 after a series of strokes. He was 70.