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Israel’s Soccer Team Makes Paris Olympics Debut While 1,000 French Police Officers Stand Guard
Oscar Gloukh of Israel celebrates with teammates their first goal during Paris 2024 Olympics – Football – Men’s Group D – Mali vs Israel match on July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw
Israel’s national soccer team kicked off the group stage of competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Wednesday night in a match against Mali, as an army of security personnel stood outside the stadium amid threats and condemnation regarding Israel’s participation in the Games.
The Israeli soccer team arrived at the Parc des Princes stadium with a large police escort that included motorbike riders at the front and about a dozen riot police vans behind them, according to the Associated Press. Armed police officers also patrolled the stadium, and roughly 1,000 French police officers stood guard during the game. The game ended 1-1, with scores in the second half made by two Mali players — defender Hamidou Diallo, who kicked the ball into his own net, and Cheickna Doumbia.
France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Paris Police Chief Laurent Nuñez also attended the match. Darmanin previously said Israeli athletes would receive 24-hour protection during the Paris Olympics because of threats made to Israel’s delegation and calls to ban the Jewish state from the Games due to the Israel-Hamas war. The Israeli delegation will also receive additional security details from Israel’s Shin Bet security agency.
“Police forces will have no vacation this summer in order to guarantee everyone’s safety and in particular, delegations deemed sensitive such as the Israeli delegation for which we have reinforced security thanks to our elite units,” National Police spokesperson Sonia Fibleuil said on Wednesday. “All the matches deemed sensitive will see heightened security with special forces and elite units but also a wider security apparatus with special resources.”
Mali has no diplomatic relations with Israel and is against the latter’s ongoing war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, which was started after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel.
Mali soccer fans loudly jeered with boos and whistles when Israel’s national anthem “Hatikvah” was played before the start of the soccer match on Wednesday. Israeli players were also booed whenever they touched the ball during the game, and there were fans in the stadium carrying Palestinian flags and banners that read “Free Palestine.”
Nuñez previously said 30,000 to 45,000 police officers will be working daily to ensure the safety of all during the Olympics, especially during Friday’s opening ceremony. France is also getting assistance from more than 40 countries that have collectively sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements to help during the Olympic Games, according to the AP.
The post Israel’s Soccer Team Makes Paris Olympics Debut While 1,000 French Police Officers Stand Guard 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.