As the drama surrounding the captured Israeli corporal in Gaza unfolds, his countrymen are looking back wistfully at one of the most daring rescue missions the world has ever seen.
Successfully executed 30 years ago by a squad of elite Israeli commandos under cover of darkness in Uganda, what became known as the Raid on Entebbe came to symbolise Israel's political will and its armed forces' operational skill.
The audacious rescue - as dangerous as it was ingenious - involved a secretive night flight and the impersonation of Ugandan soldiers and the country's dictatorial ruler Idi Amin. After 99 nerve-wracking minutes on July 4, 1976, 100 airline hijack victims had been rescued in the bold operation. 'As we moved towards the terminal I said to myself, 'we are now 29 people. It will be very interesting to know how many will be alive five minutes from now',' one of the commandos Amir Ofer told the BBC while recalling the raid.
A week before, the hostages had been aboard Air France flight 139 travelling from Tel Aviv to Paris. At a stopover in Athens, a German man and woman belonging to the Bader-Meinhof terrorist group and two Palestinians boarded the flight. Shortly after the plane took off, the four terrorists drew pistols and grenades, and ordered the pilot to fly to Libya.
'The German woman hijacker was saying all kinds of anti-Semitic things,' former hostage Ilan Hartuv said. 'She was very nervous. She took the pin out of a hand grenade so if someone tried to grab her the plane would be blown up.'
The plane flew on to Entebbe, Uganda, where under the patronage of Amin, the hijackers shepherded the passengers into an old terminal building and issued a statement demanding the release of 54 Palestinian and other prisoners, otherwise they would start executing the hostages.