MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Call warning of a bomb at AMIA HQs a hoax

It was the second such call this year at the AMIA headquarters

A bomb threat at the Buenos Aires headquarters of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) Monday afternoon was determined to be a hoax, according to Federal Police sources and authorities from the Jewish welfare group alike. The detonation of an explosive device at the old AMIA building on July 18, 1994, left 85 people dead and triggered a saga of investigations that have yielded almost no conclusive results to this day.

“We inform you that, today, a telephone intimidation was received and it was decided to intervene with the Anti-Terrorist Investigation Unit Department of the Argentine Federal Police,” AMIA explained Monday in a statement.

The call was received at 2.22 pm thus triggering all security protocols, Police sources told local media. After specialized teams canvassed the premises, no explosives were found. Traffic in the vicinity was also blocked during the operation.

Despite the bomb threat, the AMIA continued to operate normally while waiting for the PFA to determine whether or not explosives were present.

Investigators were trying to determine where the call came from, it was also reported. It was the second such call this year. These events cannot be taken lightly after what happened in 1994, when in addition to the fatalities also some 300 people were wounded.

In an interview with the BBC, President Javier Milei argued that Argentina's siding with Israel in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East posed no additional danger since his country had already been targeted by Islamist terrorism twice. In addition to the 1994 attack against the AMIA, a bomb went off at Israel's Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992.

The 1994 event is believed to be the doing of the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, with logistics support from Iran, as well as the so-called “local connection.”