Israeli National Olympic Committee president Yael Arad said the nation’s Olympics athletes had received “centralized” threats meant to generate “psychological terror” at the Paris Olympics.
“It’s not easy to be an Israeli athlete in the international arena these days,” Arad said. He added that the Olympics is “a bridge between people, between countries, between religions. And we are here to compete.”
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Israeli gold medalist Tom Reuveny, who won gold in windsurfing at the age of 24 on Sunday, spoke out about some of the threats that he and his teammates have received. Reuveny has Israel’s only gold medal so far, as the nation has won six medals in total.
“I don’t think any politics should be involved in sport, especially in the Olympic Games,” Reuveny said. “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.”
Israeli athletes have a history of being targeted at the Olympics dating back to the 1972 Munich Olympics. That year, eight terrorists associated with the group Black September — an affiliate of the Palestine Liberation Organization — snuck into the Olympic Village in a failed mission to take the athletes hostage. The mission resulted in the deaths of six Israeli coaches, five athletes, one West German policeman and five of the terrorists.
This year, the Israeli Olympic team is competing under the shadow of its nation’s ongoing war against Hamas and Gaza.
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Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday said they had carried out an airstrike in southern Lebanon, reportedly killing four Hezbollah operatives. The strike occurred in the Nabatieh area, where the IDF said its fighter jets had targeted a building used by Hezbollah in the Southern Front.
Following the assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas terror leaders last week, on Monday Iran gave credence to security concerns after it claimed that stability in the region could only be achieved by “punishing” Israel for its alleged assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
The White House announced last Thursday new defensive military deployments to help Israel defend itself against Iran and its proxies.
Palestinian athletes have had a presence at the Paris Olympics as well so far. Valerie Tarazi, a 24-year-old Palestinian-American swimmer who is competing for Palestine in Paris in the women’s 200-meter individual medley, has spoken out about what it means to compete for Palestine amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
She was also Palestine’s flag-bearer during the opening ceremony.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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