The Israel Security Agency is preparing the largest-ever security operation of its kind to safeguard Israeli athletes taking part in the Paris Olympics, according to The Telegraph.
The unprecedented mobilization comes amid a spike in threats related to the war against Hamas in Gaza, according to the report.
Former ISA chief Yaakov Peri told the British newspaper that agents are likely already on the ground in the French capital, “checking the ground.”
Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar acknowledged that there are threats against the team, which includes 88 athletes, the second-largest Israeli delegation in Olympics history.
The athletes are set to receive security details, but not everyone in the delegation will have bodyguards, said Zohar.
“We try our best to make sure the athletes feel free but also safe and not afraid. We don’t want them to notice the security guards too much. We want them to feel confident so they can do their job,” he said.
The security budget for the games has doubled since the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics and preparations have been in the works for over a year, he added.
Zohar will accompany Israeli President Isaac Herzog in greeting the Israeli athletes at the start of the competition, which gets underway on Friday. Herzog departs for Paris on Wednesday, where he will also visit the Olympic Village and affix a mezuzah at the Israeli delegation’s building, as well as participate in a memorial ceremony for the Munich Olympics.
The president will then watch Israel’s soccer team play against Mali at the Parc des Princes Stadium, before heading to Rome and then returning to Paris for a Friday reception hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron. Herzog will also meet with members of the Jewish community.
Lior Akerman, a former ISA officer, told The Telegraph that Israeli security guards will be “equipped with weapons and technologies” and will be assisted by “local security and police forces.”
France is on heightened alert ahead of the games, with the Paris 2024 organizing committee saying that 30,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed, reinforced by roughly 20,000 soldiers and between 17,000 to 22,000 private security agents expected for the Olympic sites and fan zones.
According to Hebrew media reports over the weekend, Israeli athletes have been receiving threatening messages via email and telephone ahead of the event, including a letter warning of a repeat of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists.
Far-left French lawmaker Thomas Portes sparked outrage on Saturday when he said at an anti-Israel rally that Israeli athletes were not welcome at the Paris Olympics.
“I am here to say that no, the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris,” Portes said at the rally. “Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris.”
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, condemned the remarks, saying that they put Israeli athletes in danger.
“Since October 7, Thomas Portes has legitimized Hamas,” tweeted Arfi. “Now, he puts a target on the backs of Israeli athletes, already the most threatened in the Olympic Games. Irresponsible.”
France has seen a surge in antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attacks, continuing a years-long trend of Jew hatred in the country.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations last week submitted a request to bar the Jewish state from participating in the Olympics, citing statistics from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and claims of genocide taking place in Gaza.
CAIR called on the International Olympic Committee to ban Israeli athletes from participating under an Israeli flag in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Antisemitic acts have tripled in France in the first months of 2024 compared to the same period last year, France 24 reported, citing official numbers.
Last month, a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped in a Paris suburb in an antisemitic incident that shocked France.
