HOSTAGES FREED AS ISRAELIS RAID UGANDA AIRPORT

JERUSALEM, Sunday, July 4 —Israeli airborne commandos staged a daring night‐time raid, on Entebbe airport in Uganda last night, freeing the 105 mainly Israeli hostages and Air France crew members held by pro‐Palestinian nijackers and flying them back to Israel aboard three Israeli planes.

The hostages and their rescuers were due back in Israel this morning after a brief stopover at Kenya's International. Airport at Nairobi, where at least two persons were given medical treatment in a field hospital on the runway. No details of the extent of the casualties were available here pending notification of the families.

Only fragmentary reports of the raid were immediately available here. An unspecified number of commandos apparently flew the 2,300 miles from Israel to Entebbe Airport and surprised the hijackers on the ground.

The hijackers were spending the night with their hostages in the old passenger terminal at Entebbe where they have been confined all week. They had commandeered an Air France airliner last Sunday shortly after it had left Athens on its way to Paris. News agency reports from Entebbe said that a number of large explosions — perhaps bombs — were set off at a distant point on the airport, apparently to divert the ring of Uganda troops that had surrounded the old terminal all week.

The commandos reportedly broke into the old terminal and fought a gun battle with the heavily armed hijackers. Reports from the scene said that the terrorists had been killed in the skirmish, but military sources here declined to confirm or deny this.

The hostages apparently were then rushed to the waiting Israeli planes and flown away before Uganda forces could intervene.

An Israeli radio report said that the raiders were infantrymen and paratroopers dressed in civilian clothes.

Government sources here said that the decision to stage the military operation was approved unanimously by a special Cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv yesterday. The decision was made, the sources said. when it became clear that the hijackers would not relent in ;their demands and were holding Israel responsible for the release of the 53 imprisoned Palestinian and pro‐Palestinian guerrillas that the hijackers’ had demanded be freed by Israel and four other countries’ in exchange for the hostages.

On Thursday, the Israel Cabinet reversed a long‐standing policy and agreed to negotiate) with the hijackers. The Cabinet decided in principle then to release some Arab prisoners buti not all that the hijackers had demanded.

Israel's willingness to negotiate an exchange was communicated to the hijackers through the French and Somali ambassadors on the scene at Entebbe. The hijackers reportedly refused to even discuss the Israeli proposal, insisting that only the mechanics of the exchange could be negotiated. Israel received this reply on Friday.

“It was at that point that military operation became real possibility,” a senior Government source said. Detailed plans for the operation were worked out Friday night and approved by the Cabinet yesterday at an unusual sabbath session.

Other sources suggested, however, that the original Cabinet decision on Thursday approving an exchange of prisoners for hostages had in fact been designed as a cover to buy time to prepare the military operation. In any event, the operation came as a surprise to the Israeli public, which had accepted the release of Arab prisoners as the only feasible way of freeing the hostages.

The first news of the rescue operation broke here at 3 A.M. with a terse announcement from the army spokesman, who said only that the hostages had been freed and were being returned to Israel.

The planes used in the operation were identified by the Israel Army radio this morning as C‐130 Hercules jet transports. although later there were con flicting reports on the type of plane. The American‐built and American‐supplied C‐130's have both the long‐range and loadcarrying capacity that would have been required for such an operation. Similar aircraft were used in the 1973 American airlift of arms to Israel during the October war.

The Israeli radio also reported that President Idi Amin of Uganda had telephoned an unidentified person in Israel a few hours after the rescue operation. No details of the call were made available.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was expected to brief the Cabinet and a special session of the Parliament later in the day on the details of the operation. Meanwhile, the families of the hostages were advised to assemble early this morning in Tel Aviv to meet the incoming flights from Nairobi.

French Comment

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 4 (UPI) — France's Ambassador to Kenya, Olivier Beleau, said that the Israelis had carried out the raid on the Uganda airport on their own and that France had not been asked to participate.

“We did not know anything about it, the Israelis did everything themselves.” Mr. Beleau said

He said that four Israeli planes had taken part in the raid and had fired heavily on the airport.

2 May Have Died”

Special to The Ness York Times

WASHINGTON, July 3—Ani Administration official said to‐1

night that he had had uncon‐I. reports ‘that two persons

were killed in the Israeli rescue operation. The official had no details on the nationality of the two persons or where the kill ings took place.

A State Department spokesman said tonight that he had no comment on the incident.

Field Hospital Set Up

KAMPALA, Uganda, July 4 (Agence France‐Presse) —The Israeli attack on the Entebbe airport was made by three planes that landed and took off again shortly afterwards, a source here said today.

The source said the Israeli planes had flown off to land at Kenya's international airport outside Nairobi, where a field hospital had been set up.

The Israeli force struck Entebbe, on the hanks of Lake Victoria, shortly after midnight.

By the time reporters reached the field, an hour later, Entebbe was silent, except for single explosion. There was glow in the sky over the field.

About two hours later six Uganda armored vehicles set out from the capital, heading for Entebbe.

Negotiator Was Pessimistic KAMPALA, July 4 (AP)Several hours before the attack on the terminal building, a diplomat involved in negotiations with the pro‐Palestintan hijackers expressed pessimism about obtaining an extension of the Sunday deadline set for execution of the hostages if the hijackers’ demands were not satisfied.

Since the airbus was hijacked a week ago, the hijackers had demanded release of 53 extremists in jails in five countries — Israel, France, West Germany, Switzerland and, Kenya.

The hostages had been among an original group of more than 250 people aboard an Air France airliner that was hijacked last Sunday shortly after leaving Athens on its way to Paris. The plane was flown via Libya to Uganda, .and two groups of hostages have since been released.

The hijackers—their group reportedly included Arabs, Palestinians and Germans—released 143 passengers in two groups Wednesday and Thursday, and most were flown to Paris. Diplomats said the hijackers had rebuffed a mediation attempt by the Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrellab grouping of Palestinian units, which has denounced the hijacking.

lar Front, which has broken The hijackers, the diplomats said, refused to meet with a top P.L.O. official sent in from Egypt to reassert his organization's authority over the Popular Front—which has broken away from the man grouping.