Uganda is set to unveil a statue of Yonatan Netanyahu at Entebbe Airport to honor the fallen hero, known as Yoni Netanyahu and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s older brother, who led the operation to rescue 102 Jewish and Israeli hostages from a French airline that was diverted to Entebbe Airport by a group of terrorists in 1976.

Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the chief of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) and the son of the country’s President Yoweri Museveni, issued the following statement on X:

“In order to strengthen our close blood relations with Israel, we shall soon unveil a statue to Yoni Netanyahu at the exact spot he was killed at Entebbe Airport. Yoni was the big brother of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. God bless Uganda and Israel.”

The commemoration of the heroic sacrifice of Yoni Netanyahu on Ugandan soil shows how much the relationship between Uganda and Israel has shifted in the past five decades.

Back then, President Idi Amin helped the terrorists hold the hostages at Entebbe Airport. A group of Arab and German terrorists hijacked an Air France plane carrying 248 passengers and diverted it to Entebbe Airport, where the terrorists received a warm welcome from Amin and a deployment of more than 100 soldiers to help guard the hostages. The terrorists separated the Jewish and Israeli hostages from the remaining passengers, whom they allowed to leave.

Israel conducted a surprise raid called “Operation Thunderbolt,” led by Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, during which all seven terrorists and 20 to 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed. Netanyahu was the only Israeli from the operation who died, and all the hostages were safely released. Amin denounced the raid as a breach of Ugandan sovereignty, but his successors acknowledged Israel’s right to conduct the operation. The operation was later renamed “Operation Yonatan” in his honor.