Syrian and Lebanese men arrested in Argentina over terror plot targeting Maccabi Games.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Three Syrian and Lebanese men were arrested by Argentine Federal police on suspicion of planning a terror attack on the Maccabi Games currently going on in Buenos Aires.
The 15th Pan American Maccabi Games have attracted 4,000 Jewish athletes from around the world to the Argentine capital and have required additional security given increased antisemitic attacks globally since October 7th.
The three men were identified following a joint Israeli, US, and Argentine intelligence operation.
They are Lebanese and Syrian nationals with one also holding Columbian and Venezuelan passports.
Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said at a press conference on Wednesday, “We’ve been very attentive these days because of the Maccabi Games.”
She added, “The President has been paying special attention and also because of what’s going on in the Middle East.”
Details on how the plans were intended to be carried out weren’t provided, although it did come to light that the three men, who had hotel reservations just blocks away from the Israeli embassy, were waiting for a package weighting 35kg from Yemen.
Currently, the cell phones of the three men are being investigated to discover more details about the planned attack.
Leading up to the Maccabi Pan-American Games, which started on December 27 and are continuing until Friday, there were many email threats and suspicious people caught lurking in the area of the Israeli embassy.
In October, an Iraqi national was investigated after he was seen having suspicious phone conversations outside of the Israeli embassy during the same week that Israel’s and the United States embassies were targeted with bomb threats.
When these threats were received, the buildings were evacuated, and the text of one threat said, “Jews we are going to kill you all.”
In 1992, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was bombed in a terrorist attack that killed 85 people.