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Israeli Olympic Athletes Receive ‘Psychological Terror’ Threats While Competing in Paris, Says Delegation Head
Paris 2024 Olympics – Sailing – Men’s Windsurfing Final – Marseille Marina, Marseille, France – August 03, 2024. Tom Reuveni of Israel celebrates after winning gold. Photo: Reuters/Andrew Boyers
Israeli National Olympic Committee President Yael Arad said this week that some athletes competing on behalf of Israel in the 2024 Olympics have received threats as a result of ongoing tensions over the current Israel-Hamas war that is raging in the Middle East.
Arad told The Associated Press on Tuesday that members of Israel’s Olympic delegation have received “centralized” threats aimed at stirring “psychological terror” among the athletes, but did not elaborate further.
“It’s not easy to be an Israeli athlete in the international arena these days,” she further told the AP. The Olympics is “a bridge between people, between countries, between religions. And we are here to compete.”
Israeli athlete Tom Reuveny — who won a gold medal in windsurfing on Saturday — talked about receiving “quite a few” threats while speaking to the AP during a memorial ceremony on Tuesday to commemorate the deadly terrorist attack against the Israeli delegation at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.
“I don’t think any politics should be involved in sport, especially in the Olympic Games,” said Reuveny, 24. “Unfortunately, there is a lot of politics involved — not in the Games — of the people who don’t want us to compete and don’t want us to be here. I’ve gotten quite a few messages and threats.”
The Israeli Olympic delegation has had round-the-clock security in place since their arrival in Paris, provided by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and local French police. The delegation’s security was increased following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and the killing of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon..
Prosecutors in Paris began an investigation last week into emailed death threats sent to Israeli athletes competing in the Olympics. They also launched an inquiry into possible antisemitic hate crimes and the incitement of racial hatred during an Israel-Paraguay soccer match that took place in late July as part of the Olympics. During the soccer match, fans in the stands chanted and held signs about the war in Gaza, held a banner that read “Genocide Olympics,” and “made gestures of an antisemitic nature,” prosecutors said.
France’s cybercrime unit additionally took action to remove personal information of some of the Israeli athletes that hackers published on social media. Israel’s National Cyber Directorate concluded that Iranian hackers were behind the leak.
The Palestinian Olympic Committee attempted to get Israel banned from competing in the Olympics by claiming that the Jewish state has violated the Olympic charter with its military actions in Gaza during the country’s war targeting Hamas terrorists who carried out the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
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IDF Announces Death of Major (res.) Yotam Itzhak Peled, 34, in Gaza
Yotam Itzhak Peled. Photo: IDF
i24 News – An Israel Defense Forces reserve officer was killed by a roadside bomb in central Gaza on Saturday, the military announced.
IDF announces the death of Major (res.) Yotam Itzhak Peled, 34, in Gaza. Peled was killed by a roadside bomb planted by Hamas. pic.twitter.com/1npx36rQpo
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) August 17, 2024
The death of Maj. (res.) Yotam Itzhak Peled, 34, a logistics officer with the Jerusalem Brigade’s 8119th Battalion, brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza to 330.
The post IDF Announces Death of Major (res.) Yotam Itzhak Peled, 34, in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Mulled Exhuming Graves of British Soldiers to Deter UK from Moving Embassy to Jerusalem
Yahya Sinwar, head of the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza, in Gaza City on April 14, 2023. Photo: Yousef Masoud / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
i24 News – Hamas, the Palestinian jihadist group at war with Israel, planned to exhume century-old graves of British soldiers in the Gaza Strip and use the remains as leverage to blackmail the British government, the Telegraph reported Friday.
Israeli forces fighting against Hamas in Gaza uncovered a seven-page document detailing the malodorous plan, dated October 5, 2022. It is understood the document links the plan to Yahya Sinwar, the then-Hamas leader in Gaza, who would go on to orchestrate the October 7 massacre. He was recently named as the new chief of the Hamas political bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.
The document outlined the jihadists’ strategy to pressure the UK government into reversing its stance on Jerusalem following then-Prime Minister Liz Truss’s announced decision to relocate the British embassy from Tel Aviv.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission administers a cemetery in central Gaza holding the graves of Christian and some Jewish soldiers from WWI. According to the Telegraph, the graveyard holds the remains of over 3,000 Commonwealth troops.
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Blinken to Visit Israel to Reaffirm ‘Iron-Clad Support for Israel’s Security’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a media conference after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at the Czernin Palace, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 31, 2024. Photo: Peter David Josek/Pool via REUTERS
JNS.org – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel on Saturday to “continue intensive diplomatic efforts to conclude the agreement for a ceasefire and release of hostages and detainees through the bridging proposal presented today by the United States, with support from Egypt and Qatar,” the US State Department stated on Friday.
“This proposal would achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, secure the release of all hostages, ensure humanitarian assistance is distributed throughout Gaza and create the conditions for broader regional stability,” Foggy Bottom added, noting that Blinken will stress the importance of avoiding regional escalation.
“I am sending Secretary Blinken to Israel to reaffirm my iron-clad support for Israel’s security, continue our intensive efforts to conclude this agreement and to underscore that with the comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal now in sight, no one in the region should take actions to undermine this process,” US President Joe Biden stated on Friday.
Biden said that he reviewed “the significant progress made in Doha over the past two days of talks” with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
“They expressed the strong support of Qatar and Egypt for the US proposal as co-mediators in this process,” Biden said. “Our teams will remain on the ground to continue technical work over the coming days, and senior officials will convene again in Cairo before the end of the week. They will report to me regularly.”
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