Uganda’s military unveiled a monument to Yonatan Netanyahu at Entebbe International Airport on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. Muhoozi Kainerugaba led the ceremony at the old terminal in Entebbe and said he commissioned the monument to pay tribute to the soldier’s courage.
Barak Orland was among the Israelis at the unveiling. The statue shows Yonatan Netanyahu holding an assault rifle, placing the memorial in the same airport where the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue unfolded.
Entebbe International Airport memorial
Yonatan Netanyahu was the older brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was killed in Uganda in 1976 during a hostage rescue operation. The monument ties that event to Entebbe International Airport in Entebbe, where the mission to rescue 106 passengers took place after an Air France flight was seized by two Palestinians and two Germans.
Muhoozi Kainerugaba said, "Today, this memorial stands not only in remembrance of a distinguished soldier, but also as a tribute to the enduring values he embodied: courage in the face of danger, unwavering commitment to protecting innocent lives, and steadfast devotion to duty," and the ceremony made that judgment public at the exact site linked to the rescue.
1976 Entebbe hostage rescue
Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu was the only Israeli commando killed in the mission. That detail gives the monument its sharpest edge: the memorial does not simply recall the operation, it names the man who died while leading it.
Kainerugaba is the eldest child of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his presumed heir apparent, and the unveiling put Uganda’s military behind a gesture that reaches across a long and sensitive military history. The old terminal now carries that history in public view.
For readers following Uganda’s role in the story, the only next step in the record is the monument itself, already in place at Entebbe International Airport in Entebbe. The ceremony has answered who was honored, who attended, and why the site matters, even as the act leaves the broader political choice behind the commission to be read from the memorial rather than from any further announcement.
