Bidspirit auction | Israel Medal 1976

Israel Medal 1976 - ICMC-25063594; Silver (.935), 115 g, 59 mm; Mintage: 20.409; Fine silver medal designed by Gerd Rothschild and engraved by Moshe Novak for Operation Jonathan; the IDF emblem with the olive branch entwined around the silhouette of an air force plane with ”Operation Jonathan 6 Tamuz 5736” in Hebrew with the English translation bearing the date ”4th July, 1976” // the verse: ”He sent from above and took me” (Psalm 18:17) in Hebrew and in English, numbered 8517 on edge, antique finish, Unc. On June 27, 1976, terrorists took over an Air France plane, flying the Tel-Aviv to Paris route, and forced the pilot to land the plane at an old hanger in Entebbe, Uganda. There the plane was met by Ugandan soldiers, as well as terrorists of 'The Front for the Liberation of Palestine”, armed to the teeth and carrying quantities of explosives. The 246 passengers were locked into a dusty building. The terrorists demanded that 53 terrorists in prisons, tried and sentenced, should be delivered to them in exchange for the imprisoned passengers. They set a deadline at the end of which the hostages were to pay with their lives, if their demands were not met. The Government of Israel resolved not to succumb to terror, but to liberate the hostages by a daring military operation. On July 3rd, after all diplomatic efforts failed, and the deadline of the ultimatum was near, a task force departed by plane, the flight lasting several hours, to a destination 4,000 kms away from Israel. In a lightning strike, the terrorists were killed amid a hail of fire exchanged with the Ugandan forces and the hostages were whisked away to the waiting Israeli planes. In the exchange of fire, Colonel Jonathan Natanyahu, commander of the task force, was wounded and died. The Entebbe rescue operation was later named after him - ”The Jonathan Operation.”; UNC