France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has announced that the government will deploy 1,000 police officers to stand guard during the Olympic football match between Israel and Mali at the Parc des Princes stadium tonight, Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
This announcement follows reports of a pro-Palestine demonstration set to be staged outside the stadium during the match to protest the ‘genocide’ in Gaza. Additionally, the Ukraine-Iraq match in the southeastern city of Lyon has been identified by French security forces as high-risk.
Posters have already been put up in Paris ahead of the Games, saying ‘No Olympics for Israel,’ amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“All the competitions have a security plan, but it’s true that these two matches, and particularly the match at the Parc des Princes, will have security, an anti-terror perimeter,” Darmanin stated. “Tonight at the Parc des Princes, there will be a thousand police officers who will ensure that we are there for the sport.”
Meanwhile, according to France 24, French police on Tuesday arrested a Russian man suspected of plotting acts of “destabilization” during the Paris Olympics. The man, born in 1984, was held in custody and placed under judicial investigation on suspicion of “organizing events likely to lead to destabilization during the Olympic Games.”
Authorities have investigated over a million people, including athletes, coaches, journalists, volunteers, security guards, and even local residents near event locations ahead of the Olympics, Darmanin told Paris Match on Tuesday.
The match kicks off at 9:00 pm.
Europalestine, a French activist group behind recent protests, told The Guardian newspaper that it was planning a peaceful demonstration inside the stadium to protest the “genocide” in Gaza.
On Tuesday, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, and French President Emmanuel Macron rejected a Palestinian demand that Israel be barred from the Paris Games over the war in Gaza.
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