Newly Declassified Records Show Entebbe Was Considered After a Foiled Kenya Plot

Marking 50 years since Operation Entebbe, the Knesset Archive has released classified Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee minutes for the first time, offering a rare look at the months before the Air France hijacking and one of Israel’s most daring rescue operations. The documents show that on March 19, 1976, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told lawmakers about a top-secret mission later known as “Operation Sour Bread,” in which the Shin Bet and Mossad thwarted a plan to shoot down an El Al plane carrying 140 passengers as it was due to land in Nairobi, Kenya. The plot was led by Wadie Haddad, a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.