Israel says Brazil foiled Iran-backed Hezbollah attack on Israelis, Jews

Security forces in Brazil, in collaboration with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and its partners within the Israeli security community, as well as other international security and law enforcement agencies, have successfully foiled a planned attack by Hezbollah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.

The alleged foiled attack was “orchestrated and financed by the Iranian regime,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that “this disruption targets a vast network that extends to several other nations globally.”

"Mossad expresses gratitude to the Brazilian security forces for their role in detaining a terrorist cell operating under Hezbollah's directives, which intended to execute an attack against Israeli and Jewish targets within Brazil," the office added.

It said that amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza with the Hamas Palestinian movement, Hezbollah and Tehran “persist in their global efforts to orchestrate attacks against Israeli, Jewish, and Western targets.”

Brazil’s Federal Police meanwhile said that “terrorist plans” were foiled when two people were arrested in Sao Paulo state.

The two suspects were recruited and financed by Hezbollah and planned to target buildings tied to the Jewish community, according to an official with information about the plans but who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The police statement did not give details about the suspects. It said police also executed 11 search warrants in Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and the Federal District that were aimed at obtaining proof of possible recruitment of Brazilians for carrying out extremist acts in the country, adding that it was targeting both recruits and recruiters.

Brazilian news site UOL said the alleged targets for the attacks were synagogues and other buildings linked to Brazil's Jewish community, which numbers around 107,000 people.

Local paper O Globo reported that police arrested one of the two suspects when they returned to the international airport in Sao Paulo, with information in hand to carry out the attack. There are two additional targets for arrest in Lebanon, the paper reported, without saying how it obtained that information.

The Brazilian Israelite Confederation celebrated the police operation on X, formerly Twitter.

“We congratulate the Federal Police, the public prosecutor’s office and the justice ministry for their preventive action," said the group, known by its acronym Conib.

“The tragic conflicts in the Middle East cannot be imported into our country, where different communities live peacefully, harmoniously and without fear of terrorism," the group said.

Brazil has one of the world's largest Lebanese populations; most estimates put their total well above that of Lebanon itself.