Iran slams Israel participation in Paris Olympics

Iran condemned on Tuesday the "reception and protection" of Israeli athletes at the Olympic games in Paris, demanding their exclusion over Israel's handling of the Gaza war.

Israel's delegation, which headed to France on Monday ahead of Friday's opening ceremony, is being tightly protected in the French capital amid growing international outrage over the the high civilian casualty toll and unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

"Announcing the reception and protection of the apartheid terrorist Zionist regime's delegation means giving legitimacy to the child killers," Iran's foreign ministry said in a post on X.

"They do not deserve to be present at the Paris Olympics because of the war against the innocent people of Gaza," it added, calling on organizers to ban Israel.

The Gaza war was triggered by the October 7 attacks on Israel by Iran-backed militant group Hamas, which led to the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive against the militants has killed at least 39,090 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry.

Iran does not recognize Israel and prohibits all contact between Iranian and Israeli athletes.

The Islamic republic has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In February, Iran's football federation asked the sport's governing body, FIFA, to suspend its Israeli counterpart over the war in Gaza.

Last August, Iranian authorities imposed a lifetime ban on weightlifter Mostafa Rajaei after he shook hands with an Israeli competitor at an event in Poland, state media reported at the time.

In 2021, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged athletes "not to shake hands with a representative of the (Israeli) criminal regime to obtain a medal".