It only took a few moments, but Tamir Pardo remembers every detail, even after 35 years. Pardo took part in the Entebbe operation to free Israeli hostages taken captive by Palestinian terrorists and held at Entebbe airport in Uganda, in July 1976. "Yoni [Netanyahu] was hit and collapsed," Pardo told the "Mabat Malam," the Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center. "I called out for David Hasin, the medic, and reported the incident to Muki Batzar, Yoni's deputy commander. I told him to take command of the operation. I then joined one of the combat units and we went in." Pardo, at the time communications officer of Sayeret Matkal (the IDF's elite General Staff Reconnaissance Unit), and a member of the command staff of the operation, came full circle when he was appointed Director of the Mossad in January 2011. He inherited an organization that prepared part of the plan for Entebbe, which was a significant success for Israel. Mossad agents took part in the questioning of the released captives in France. "After the hijacking, non-Israeli citizens were released," Pardo said. "The Mossad put together a team that was sent to Paris. The head of the team, from Sayeret Matkal, was Amiram Levin." The Mossad also provided up-to-date intelligence concerning the Entebbe airport. "Aerial surveillance photos that arrived at the last moment were distributed to us just before we took off," Pardo recalls. People in the know say that then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin authorized the operation only on the condition that those photos were obtained. Pardo credits everyone who was involved in the operation. He calls the force that landed in Uganda in the middle of the night "the dream team". "The operation was not the doing of any one single unit. It was an IDF operation in which several units participated: Reconnaissance units of the General Staff, Golani, Paratroopers, the air force, and other units." On the afternoon of July 3, 1976, the planes took off from Sharm el-Sheikh in the Sinai Peninsula and headed for their distant target. "The command group included four officers: Yoni Netanyahu, Alik Ron, David Hasin, a medic, and myself. We were in the first of four planes," Pardo remembers. Pardo spent his flight time dozing off in one of the jeeps they took with them on the planes. "When we landed, Yoni gave me a map pointing out our escape route, and asked me to hold onto it in case we need it. A copy of the aerial photos was in my pocket." The forces left the planes and made their way to the terminal in a convoy of vehicles that appeared to be protecting the car of Idi Amin, the President of Uganda. "The Mossad obtained a Mercedes and loaned it to us," Pardo relates. "It was originally white, so we painted it black." The Mercedes disembarked from the plane first, and then came the Land Rover carrying Pardo and Pinchas Buchris, who later became commander of Unit 8200 (Israeli Intelligence Corps unit responsible for collecting signal intelligence and code decryption). "We started moving one after another and arrived at the confrontation point. While the other planes were landing, we were already involved in executing the plan. I was beside Yoni, and we ran at a quick pace." At one point, Yoni was hit. "He slumped down and fell," Pardo said. "I called out for David Hasin, the medic, and reported the incident to Muki Batzar, Yoni's deputy commander. I told him to take command of the operation. I then joined one of the combat units and we went in." The unit Pardo joined encountered a terrorist holding a white phosphorus grenade. The grenade exploded and Pardo sustained light burns. "When we took off at the end of the operation, the released captives were in the first plane, and we were in the last plane." Due to the Mossad's connections in Kenya, the planes were refueled in Nairobi on their way back to Israel. As a concluding note, a few years ago Pardo gave the Netanyahu family the map of the escape route that Yoni gave to him during the Entebbe operation.
