Sorry for the delay on this, I had to wait for my books to get unpacked, as I couldn't remember the answer either.

There are two relevant sections in "90 Minutes at Entebbe" by William Stevenson and Uri Dan.

​

In the section when they are talking about short-field landings...

"The distance eaten up during landing was never more than 700 feet, which would perch the Hercules on the outer edge of Entebbe Airport and hopefully beyond the earshot of the terrorists"

​

Then in the section describing what actually happened:

The airport was fully lit, which meant that they were able to land on the runways without need for the full short-field capability.

​

"David watched the speed bleed away swiftly from 100 to 75 miles an hour. Inside the hull the 'plane seemed to fall out of the air with a shriek of twisted metal and protesting turbines. Outside,an observer would have seen the craft slide almost soundlessly onto the runway, the underinflated tyres uttering a soft squeal.

<...>

David and his copilot kept the machine moving swiftly down the runway. No loud reversal of engines for braking, no standing on brakes...

David kept moving at the same allotted speed, calculated in rehearsal to bring him within yards of the old terminal building without unnecessary noise. The turboprops scarcely disturbed the sluggish African night."

​

That said, it is entirely possible that some folks did see the aircraft landing... But it was an airport. Aircraft land all the time at those places, and in the dark, it's kindof hard to tell what sort of airplane just landed, let alone whose it was. Sentries/guards are not kept abreast of landing schedules, so Joe over on Sentry Post 17 may well have just assumed it was an approved landing. After all, the idea of Israeli aircraft showing up 2,500 miles from home probably didn't seriously cross many peoples' minds.