Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara and their sons Yair and Avner attended a memorial ceremony at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Tuesday for the prime minister's older brother Yonatan Netanyahu, the Sayeret Matkal commander who was killed 40 years ago during the July 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue operation. Other attendees included the prime minister's younger brother Iddo Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, former President Shimon Peres (defense minister at the time of the Entebbe operation), Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, and a number of the hostages who were rescued at Entebbe. Gilad Schalit, the IDF soldier who was held captive by Hamas for more than five years before being freed in a prisoner swap in October 2011, was also in attendance. Shlomi Reisman, a former Sayeret Matkal commando who took part in the Entebbe operation, said, "The heart of the operation, eliminating the terrorists and freeing the hostages, was entrusted to the unit [the Sayeret Matkal], and it was Yoni who led it successfully on this impossible mission." Benny Davidson, a representative of the freed hostages, said, "Yoni was killed for us. Yoni fell, and in falling, gave us life. ... May your memory be eternally blessed."
