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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.
The post Israeli Olympic Athletes Receive ‘Psychological Terror’ Threats While Competing in Paris, Says Delegation Head first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.