France insists Israel's athletes are welc8k8 casino registerome at Paris 2024 Olympics

France has vowed to keep Israel's athletes safe and make them feel welcome at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

After fears were raised that pro-Palestinian activists may target Israelis during the event and following claims from a French lawmaker that Israel's athletes should be banned from the competition because of the conflict in Gaza, France's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Israel's delegation will be welcomed and protected around the clock.

Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne added at a meeting of European Union counterparts on Monday that Israel's athletes will be looked after in France.

"I want to say on behalf of France, to the Israeli delegation, we welcome you to France for these Olympic Games," Reuters quoted him as saying.

Darmanin and Sejourne made the comments after far-left France Unbowed lawmaker Thomas Portes said at a pro-Palestinian rally in Paris on the weekend that Israel's athletes should be banned, and that people should protest if they are not. "We are a few days away from an international event which will be held in Paris, which is the Olympic Games," Reuters quoted him as saying. "And I am here to say that no, the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris."

Portes later told Le Parisien newspaper that French diplomats should at least be pressuring the International Olympic Committee to ban Israel's flag and anthem from the event.

Darmanin said: "The hints of anti-Semitism in his comments are obvious."

The Guardian newspaper quoted Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, as saying calls for Israeli athletes to be banned were "indecent" and "irresponsible" and put "a target on the backs of Israeli athletes".

But Manuel Bompard, another France Unbowed lawmaker, defended Portes on the social media platform X, writing that he had experienced a "wave of hatred "for comments that were essentially correct.

"Faced with repeated violations of international law by the Israeli government, it is legitimate to ask that its athletes compete under a neutral banner in the Olympic Games," he added.

Ahead of Friday's opening ceremony, the Palestinian Olympic Committee has also asked for the Israeli delegation to be banned. In an open letter to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, it said Israel had breached the traditional Olympic truce, which it claimed should run from July 19 until mid-September.

In an apparent attempt to reduce tension around the Israeli team, a planned memorial ceremony for the 11 Israelis killed in a terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany that Israel's President Isaac Herzog is set to attend has been moved, from outside Paris City Hall to inside the Israeli embassy.