Eight Palestinian athletes taking part in the Paris Olympics will be symbols of “resistance” during the Israeli bombardment in Gaza, a Palestinian minister said as the official delegation left the occupied West Bank.

According to AFP, this will be the eighth time Palestinian athletes have taken part in the Olympics since 1996, but Olympic committee head Jibril Rajoub said the athletes had never felt so much attention.

The athletes are preparing for the start of the Paris Games on July 26 in a “very dark moment in our history”, said Palestinian Authority Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Varsen Aghabekian Shahin.

“You are not just athletes, you are also […] symbols of Palestinian resistance,” Aghabekian added.

French organisers have stepped up security in Paris because of the conflict. But Rajoub said: “We want this participation to be a message from the Palestinians to the world that it is time for them to be free in their homeland.”

“Through this participation, we want to present the suffering of the Palestinian people and the unprecedented killing taking place in Gaza,” he added.

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