With Strife at Home, Security Concerns Grow for Israeli Olympians in Paris

Israeli athletes who had already been moving around the Paris Games with a security apparatus befitting a head of state can expect heightened protection after the recent assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders caused security officials to fear for the athletes’ safety.

On Saturday, a rocket from Lebanon hit a soccer field in Majdal Shams, an Arab Druse village in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel blamed the deadly rocket attack on Hezbollah, which denied responsibility. On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed a Hezbollah commander near Beirut, the Lebanese capital, in retaliation.

The tension in the region intensified on Wednesday morning, when Hamas and Iran accused Israel of assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, one of the most senior Hamas leaders. Israel has not addressed the killing.

“There’s no doubt that an attack by Hezbollah, which knows and is capable of operating abroad, should increase the level of security provided to the delegation,” Shmulik Philosof, a former head of a Shin Bet unit, Israel’s domestic security agency, said of the Israeli team now competing in the summer Olympics.

Concerns for the Israeli team — which has been shrouded in protection at every Games since 11 of its athletes and coaches were killed at the Munich Olympics in 1972 — have substantially increased since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, the subsequent war in Gaza, global protests and continuing threats.

Before traveling to Paris, Israeli athletes reported receiving anonymous emails that threatened, “we intend to repeat the events of Munich 1972.”