France probes death threats against Israeli Olympians

France has opened an investigation into death threats against three Israeli athletes as well as possible anti-Semitic hate crimes during a football match, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.

The death threats were reported by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and the investigation will be led by the national anti-online hate body, the prosectuors’ office said in a statement.

Israel on Thursday warned France about cyber harrassment of its athletes and leaks of personal data that it blamed on Iran-backed groups.

Personal details of Israeli athletes’ were leaked on social media including blood test results and login credentials.

Prosecutors said they were probing possible anti-Semitic hate crimes during an Israel-Paraguay football match Saturday in Paris which featured chants and banners about the Gaza war.

The match at the Paris Saint Germain stadium saw fans “dressed in black, masked and carrying Palestinian flags unfurl a banner saying ‘Genocide Olympics’” and one of them “made gestures of an anti-Semitic nature”, a separate statement said.

The Paris Olympics organisers lodged a complaint with police, the prosecutors’ statement added, confirming a story by the Parisien newspaper. 

An AFP reporter at the stadium said about 50 so-called “ultra” fans in the crowd sang chants in French against Israel and about the Gaza war. The chants, in French, included “Israel Killer” and “Israel is killing Palestine’s children”.

The Israeli anthem was booed by part of the crowd. Some Israeli fans in the stadium chanted back “Free the hostages”.

The fans could be charged with aggravated incitement to racial hatred, the statement said. 

Paraguay beat Israel 4-2 in the match.

The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,324 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.