Hezbollah militiamen, on the 6th in Beirut (Lebanon), during a funeral. WAEL HAMZEH (EFE)
The Brazilian federal police arrested two people in São Paulo this Wednesday who are accused of having prepared attacks against the interests of the Brazilian Jewish community on behalf of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. Those arrested, whose identities were not released, were Brazilian nationals and had planned to attack “Jewish community buildings, including synagogues,” the O Globo newspaper said, citing sources in the investigation. According to the official statement, the agents carried out searches in 11 houses in São Paulo, Brasilia and the state of Minas Gerais.
The Brazilian police statement said the aim of the operation was to “interrupt preparatory acts of terrorism and obtain evidence of the possible recruitment of Brazilians to carry out extremist acts in the country.” According to O Globo, there are two additional arrest warrants against suspects who are in Lebanon.
In their note, the police do not provide any information about the targets, the progress of the arrestees’ plans or the circumstances of the arrests. The recruiters and recruiters are accused of belonging to a terrorist organization and carrying out terrorist plans, crimes that are punishable by a total of 15 years in prison, according to police.
Within hours, Israel congratulated Brazilian authorities and announced that Mossad, Israel’s Foreign Intelligence Service and other foreign intelligence agencies were involved in the operation to “prevent a terrorist attack in Brazil planned by Hezbollah, a terrorist organization directed and financed by the terrorist organization.” “To thwart” Iran’s cooperation, said a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, Portal reports.
The operation comes as Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip enters a month, with Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist militia Hamas, and the Israeli army caught in crossfire on the border.
Israeli bombings have already killed more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that left 1,400 Israelis dead. Thirty-four Palestinian-Brazilians remain trapped in the tiny area, whom Israel does not currently count as dual-nationals eligible to leave for Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, as hundreds of people with foreign passports have done in recent days . and Gaza seriously injured. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry’s various efforts, including with Israel and the USA, have been unsuccessful for the time being.
This Wednesday it was confirmed that among the dead in the Hamas attack that started the war was a couple, consisting of a Chilean woman and a Spanish man, who lived in a kibbutz and were believed to have been kidnapped in the Strip.
Brazil is home to a large Jewish community as well as descendants of immigrants who came from what is now Lebanon in the 20th century.
O Globo assures that those arrested this Wednesday are linked to a group of eleven people arrested in 2016 and accused of preparing attacks on the Olympic Games that took place that year in Rio de Janeiro.