On the eve of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned on Thursday of possible attacks by Iran-linked groups on athletes from his country.
“We currently have assessments of the potential threat posed by Iranian terrorist proxies and other terrorist organizations seeking to attack members of the Israeli delegation and Israeli tourists during the Olympic Games,” Katz wrote in a letter to his French counterpart Stéphane Séjourné, quoted by the Times of Israel.
Potential terrorist attacks could target members of the Israeli Olympic delegation and Israeli visitors to the Games, Katz said. He was not more specific about the parts of the letter that were made public.
Groups with a terrorist background that have ties to Iran include the Palestinian Islamist Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Katz thanked French President Emmanuel Macron for the unprecedented security measures the host country has taken for the Israeli Olympic participants.
The Israeli delegation is under special protection at the Games in France, with their teams and individual athletes being escorted 24 hours a day by French police.