It is unlikely that any team has ever arrived at an Olympics the way the men’s soccer team of Israel rolled up to the Parc de Princes on Wednesday night.

Police vans led the way, dozens of them filled with squads of French riot police and surrounded by a phalanx of officers on motorcycles. The Israelis traveled in a cocoon of safety in the center of the huge motorcade, packed into a city bus pressed into special duty for the Games. Then came more vans, more police outriders, more sirens — a stunning show of force with one task: to protect the first Israeli participants to take the field of play in the Paris Games.

The security of Israel’s team at the Olympics — any Olympics — has been a critical issue since the killing of 11 athletes and coaches at the Munich Games in 1972. The ongoing war in Gaza and the global protests that have accompanied it have made the Paris Games perhaps the most fraught sporting event featuring Israeli athletes in the half-century since then.

For Paris 2024 organizers, then, the mere presence of Israel’s delegation has presented the biggest security concern after the sprawling opening ceremony that is set to take place on the River Seine on Friday. It also made the Israelis’ soccer game against Mali on Wednesday an early test for almost every element of France’s security apparatus.

Israel has projected calm about its nerves and its security before the opener — “No one is worried,” its coach, Guy Luzon, said on Tuesday — but signs that Wednesday evening would be a charged affair were clear from before the first ball was kicked. Israeli’s anthem was met by jeers from sections of the half-filled stadium, and some spectators wearing white T-shirts with letters that spelled the words “Free Palestine” were swiftly removed by security.