Israel has said it helped Cyprus to thwart an Iranian-backed attack on Jews and Israelis on the Mediterranean island.
The office of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (December 10) the number of similar plots have risen after Hamas’s bloody attack on southern Israel on October 7.
Mr Netanyahu’s office did not provide details of the foiled attack but said it was troubled by what it claimed as Iranian exploitation of northern Cyprus for “terrorism” and as an “operational and tranist area”.
While the internationally recognised government of Cyprus maintains a close relationship with Israel, the breakaway, northern Turkish-Cypriot side of the island is viewed as a state only by Turkey.
Ankara has been highly critical of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparked by militants from the group unleashing a series of coordinated attacks on October 7, kiling over a thousand people and taking some 240 hostage.
Earlier this week the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Mr Netanyahu would be tried for alleged war crimes and should not be allowed to get away with atrocities in Gaza.
A Greek-Cypriot newspaper reported earlier today that two Iranians were detained on suspicion of planning attacks on Israelis living in Cyrpus. It has not been possible to independently verify that report. Tehran has previously denied involvement in plans to attack Israelis on the island.
The Cyprus Mail news website said this latest foiled attack is not the first to be stymied, with Mr Netanyahu claiming in June another plot had been thwarted.
Thousands of Israelis holiday in Cyprus each year, with flights between the island and Israel taking about 30-40 minutes.
Cyprus itself was partitioned along a UN monitored “green line” dividing the Turkish-Cypriot north from the Greek Cypriot south after Turkey invaded the island in July 1974.
Mr Netanyahu’s office also said on Sunday that Hamas still has 117 hostages, as well as the remains of 20 people killed in captivity or during the October 7 attack. The militants hope to exchange them for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Tel Aviv says it has provided detailed instructions for civilians to evacuate to safer areas, even as it continues to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of the territory.
Thousands have fled to the southern town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt in recent days — one of the last areas where aid agencies are able to deliver food and water.
The war has raised tensions across the region, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah trading fire with Israel along the border and other Iran-backed militant groups targeting the US in Syria and Iraq.
France said one of its warships in the Red Sea shot down two drones which had approached it from Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels have vowed to halt Israeli shipping through the key waterway.
