Israel has announced that a Moldovan Israeli rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates was killed in a “heinous anti-Semitic terrorist attack.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement condemning the death of Zvi Kogan, who worked for an Orthodox Jewish organization in Dubai called Chabad and has not been seen since Thursday.
“The State of Israel will do everything possible to bring to justice the criminals responsible for his death,” the Israeli prime minister said in a statement.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the killing and thanked Emirati authorities for their “swift action.”
Early Sunday morning, the UAE's state news agency confirmed Kogan's disappearance, but only mentioned that he was Moldovan, without mentioning his reported Israeli nationality. It is unclear exactly when and where the 28-year-old's body was found.
Israeli authorities reiterated their warning against non-essential travel by Israelis to the UAE, saying visitors currently in the country should minimize their movements and remain in safe areas.
The UAE normalized diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020, joining other countries such as Bahrain and Morocco. The agreement survived more than a year of severe tensions in the region following Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. After months of retaliation with the militant group Hezbollah, Israel's retaliatory attacks in Gaza and invasion of Lebanon have fueled anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals and others living in the United Arab Emirates.
Tensions are also rising in other parts of the region. A man was killed in Jordan on Sunday after opening fire and wounding three members of the security forces near the Israeli embassy in the capital Amman, state media reported. A government spokesperson described the incident as a “terrorist attack.”
The Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a prominent U.S.-based branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, said Saturday that Kogan was last seen in Dubai. The UAE currently has a rapidly growing Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses offering kosher dinners.
“It is with great pain that we share that Rabbi Zvi Kogan, Chabad Lubavitch’s special envoy to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), was abducted on Thursday and then murdered by terrorists. The body was recovered early Sunday morning and the family was notified.” A statement from the movement said:.
Rimon Market, the kosher supermarket Kogan ran on Dubai's busy Al Wasl Road, closed on Sunday. The store was the target of online protests by Palestinian supporters last year. When an Associated Press reporter visited on Sunday, it appeared that the mezuzahs (small parchment scrolls in containers placed on gateposts by observant Jews) at the market's front and back entrances had been torn away.
Enet, Israeli news website, Kogan's car was found abandoned in Al Ain, a town 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Dubai, and investigators believe he was being followed by “three Uzbek agents.” Reported.
Other Israeli media have suggested that cells indirectly run by Iran were involved in Kogan's abduction and murder. of Haaretz The newspaper reported that Israeli security sources said that the members of the cell involved in Kogan's murder were Uzbek nationals who fled to Turkey to divert attention from Iran.
Tehran's intelligence services have carried out kidnappings in the UAE in the past, leading Western officials to believe that Iran is conducting intelligence operations there and monitoring hundreds of thousands of Iranians living in the country. are.
Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British-Iranian Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, but the Iranian government denies any involvement. Iran also abducted Iranian-German Jamshid Sharmahad from Dubai in 2020, brought him back to Tehran and executed him in October.
