French Police Open Investigation Following Death Threats Against Israeli Olympic Athletes

French authorities also arrested a 15-year-old suspected of threatening Israeli President Isaac Herzog online.

By United with Israel and JNS

French police have opened an investigation after death threats were received by three Israeli athletes participating in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the Paris prosecutor’s office said according to Reuters.

Officers are also investigating the release of athletes’ personal data on social networks on Friday and seeking to have it removed, prosecutors said according to the report.

On Sunday, Le Parisien reported that French authorities had arrested a 15-year-old on suspicion of threatening Israeli President Isaac Herzog online.

The suspect—identified as a resident of the Ivry-sur-Seine on Paris’s southern outskirts who lived with his parents—had anonymously called for a terrorist attack on the Israeli head of state, according to the report.

The teenager was apprehended by police officers on Saturday while on a family vacation in the Alpine region of Isère, the newspaper reported.

In light of his clean criminal record, the suspect will be ordered to undergo a mandatory “citizenship course,” prosecutors said.

This course, which can last up to one month, aims to remind attendees of the “Republican values of tolerance and respect for the dignity of the human being and to make them aware of their criminal and civil liability, together with the duties that stem from life in society.”

Israel’s National Cyber Directorate said on Thursday it had concluded that Iranian hackers were creating social media channels to publish personal information about the Israeli athletes and send them threatening messages.

On the same day, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned the French foreign minister of a potential Iranian-backed plot to target Israeli athletes and tourists during the Olympics.

Israel’s National Security Council has warned citizens planning to attend the Olympic Games (July 26-Aug. 11) and Paralympic Games (Aug. 28-Sept. 8) to avoid “areas of friction” to protect their safety.

“International events like these tend to be desirable targets for threats and attacks by terrorist groups, given the considerable media attention that a ‘successful’ terrorist attack at an Olympic event would receive,” the National Security Council said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

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