Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, assisted Brazilian security forces and international law-enforcement bodies in thwarting a terror attack planned by Hezbollah operatives, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.
“Security forces in Brazil, together with the Mossad and its partners in the Israeli security community, as well as other international security and law enforcement agencies thwarted an attack in Brazil that Hezbollah, under the direction and funding of Iran, was planning to carry out,” read the statement, adding that the operatives were part of “a wide network stretching into other countries as well.”
The statement also noted that the Hezbollah cell arrested was planning an attack against Israeli and Jewish interests in Brazil. “These days, against the backdrop of the war against the terror group of Hamas, the terror group of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime continue to operate worldwide to carry out attacks against Israeli, Jewish and Western targets,” read the statement.
The rare Israeli statement acknowledging the involvement of the Mossad in a clandestine operation was published after reports in Brazil exposing the plot.
Two arrested
According to CNN Brazil and Rio’s O Globo newspaper, the Brazilian federal police arrested on Wednesday two men with suspected links to Hezbollah. The two were reportedly plotting to launch terror attacks against the Jewish community in Brazil, though no details were given about their specific target. More could be arrested, the authorities said.
A statement issued by the Brazil federal police said they had carried out search warrants in Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and the federal district around Brazil’s capital, Brasilia.
“The recruiters and those they recruit will face charges of creating or belonging to a terrorist organization and carrying out preparations for acts of terrorism, carrying a potential maximum sentence … of 15 and a half years in prison,” the police statement added.
There are several large Jewish communities in Latin America. The biggest one, in Argentina, with nearly 180,00 Jews, suffered two major terror attacks in the 1990s.
In 1992, a bombing attack against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires left 29 people killed. Then, in 1994, the bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center, also in the capital of Argentina, killed 86 people with Hezbollah and Iran as main suspects.
The Jewish community in Brazil is the second largest in the region, with an estimated 100,000 people living in Rio and Sao Paulo.
Last Friday, Israel’s National Security Council issued an unusual recommendation to Israelis against traveling abroad if unnecessary. Citing rising antisemitism worldwide since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the Council urged Israelis to reconsider any travel abroad while calling on those who do travel overseas to avoid displaying any signs of their Jewish and Israeli identities.