He Was A Bus Driver On Reserve Duty. He Was The First Through The Door At Entebbe.

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]His name was Surin Hershko. He was a bus driver from a small Israeli town.

[00:00:05]In 1976, he was doing his military reserve duty. He was assigned to the Entebbe rescue mission [music] at the last minute. He had never trained for hostage rescue. He had never parachuted into a combat zone. He was a bus driver.

[00:00:18]On July 4th, 1976, he was in the first team through the terminal door. In the first seconds of the assault, a bullet severed his spinal cord. He was 22 years old. He survived, but he never walked again.

[00:00:32]For 47 years, Surin Hershko lived in a wheelchair. He never complained publicly, never sought attention.

[00:00:38][music] He quietly raised a family, drove a specially adapted vehicle, and attended every Entebbe memorial.

[00:00:46]>> [music] >> In 2023, Israel finally awarded him the Medal of Valor, 47 years after the mission. He was 69 years old when he received it. At the ceremony, he said only this, "I did what any Israeli soldier would have done. There were 102 people in that terminal who needed to come home. The story of Entebbe belongs to them, not to me." Surin Hershko died in January 2024, 7 months after finally receiving his medal.

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