The Israel National Cyber Directorate announced on July 25 that Iran was behind an online intimidation campaign targeting Israeli athletes competing in the Paris Olympics. Hackers posing as the French far-right student organization Groupe Union Défense sent threatening messages and created online channels to disseminate personal information about the athletes. One such message, sent to Israeli swimmer Meiron Amir Cheruti, read: “You are welcome to attend the funeral of Meiron Amir Cheruti, born on October 19, 1997, died on July 27, 2024.” Another message sent to athletes warned: “The fate of the Zionists will be like that of the Palestinians in Gaza if the Zionists continue to terrorize everyone.”
For its part, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach expressed his “full confidence” in the French authorities’ ability to ensure the safety of Israeli athletes. Bach noted that the IOC is working closely with “180 other international intelligence agencies collecting all information” to create a safe and secure environment for the games, which formally opened on July 26. In the hours immediately prior to the opening ceremony, unidentified saboteurs carried out arson attacks at five separate junctions of the French national railway network, causing severe delays. “Everything points us to these fires being deliberate — the timing, the vans that have been recovered after people have fled, the incendiary agents found on the scene,” Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete commented.
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