Uganda unveils statue honoring Yoni Netanyahu at Entebbe, 50 years after rescue raid
Uganda's military has unveiled a monument to Yonatan Netanyahu, the older brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was killed during the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue mission. The statue, showing Netanyahu striding forward with a machine gun, was installed outside the old terminal of Entebbe International Airport, the site of the operation.
The ceremony took place on Saturday, 1 August 2026, and was led by Uganda's army chief, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who also serves as the eldest son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and is widely seen as a possible successor. Among the attendees were members of an Israeli delegation, including Barak Orland, a businessman based in Uganda.
Commemoration and remarks
In his address, Kainerugaba said the memorial honored Netanyahu's courage and selfless service. He described the mission as "one of the most significant episodes in modern history" and spoke of the now close ties between Uganda and Israel as a "remarkable journey."
"Today, this memorial stands not only in remembrance of a distinguished soldier, but also as a tribute to the enduring values he embodied: courage in the face of danger, unwavering commitment to protecting innocent lives, and steadfast devotion to duty," Kainerugaba said, as quoted by multiple outlets.
He also noted that "memorials are more than stone and bronze. They preserve memory, teach history, and inspire future generations," according to remarks reported by the Jerusalem Post.
The Entebbe operation
On 27 June 1976, two Palestinians and two Germans hijacked an Air France flight that had taken off from Tel Aviv, forcing it to divert to Libya and then to Uganda, where it landed at Entebbe. The hijackers, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, demanded $5 million and the release of 53 militants jailed in Israel, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Kenya.
Israeli commandos, led by Lt.-Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, launched a rescue mission on 4 July 1976. The operation freed 102 hostages, but Netanyahu was killed—the only Israeli soldier to die in the raid. Three hostages—Jean-Jacques Mimouni, Pasco Cohen, and Ida Borochovitch—also died during the assault, and a fourth, Dora Bloch, was later murdered in a hospital in Kampala.
The hijackers and three accomplices were killed, as were at least 45 Ugandan soldiers who fought the Israeli forces. Kainerugaba acknowledged those deaths, saying the soldiers had "fought valiantly... in what they believed was a justified cause," while noting that the government of Idi Amin, which they served, was "a brutal dictatorship which did not represent the Ugandan people."
Reactions and context
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the unveiling of the monument to his brother, saying that Yonatan's death "changed the course" of his life, as reported by RFI. Uganda and Israel formally restored diplomatic relations in 1994 after more than two decades without official ties.
The ceremony marked the 50th anniversary of the raid and underscored the evolving relationship between the two countries, which Kainerugaba described as a "remarkable journey" from the events of 1976 to today.