TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Israel said Sunday that the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found after he was killed in what it described as a “horrific anti-terrorist incident.”
A statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “will work by all means to bring justice to the criminals who killed Israel.” There was no immediate comment from the UAE.
Zvi Kogan, 28, an Orthodox rabbi who went missing on Thursday, owned a Kosher grocery store in downtown Dubai, where Israelis have flocked for trade and tourism since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in the 2020 Abraham Accords.
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The deal ends more than a year of heightened tensions sparked by an October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas in southern Israel. But Israel’s devastating revenge in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, after months of fighting the terrorist group Hezbollah, have sparked anger among Emiratis, Arab citizens and others living in the UAE.
Iran, which backs Hamas and Hezbollah, has also threatened to retaliate against Israel after a wave of airstrikes against Israel in October in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
The Emirati government did not respond to a request for comment.
Early on Sunday, the UAE-owned WAM news agency acknowledged Kogan’s disappearance but denied that he held Israeli citizenship, calling him only Moldovan. The Emirati Ministry of Interior described Kogan as “missing and incommunicado.”
“Special authorities immediately started search and investigation operations after receiving the report,” the Ministry of Interior said.
Netanyahu told a regular Cabinet meeting later on Sunday that he was “deeply shocked” by Kogan’s disappearance and death. He said he appreciates the cooperation of the UAE in the investigation and said that the relationship between these countries will continue to be strengthened.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the killings and thanked the Emirati authorities for their “quick action.” He said he hoped that “they will work hard to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Kogan was a representative of the Chabad Lubavitch organization, the most prominent and conservative branch of Orthodox Judaism based in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood in New York City. It is said that he was last seen in Dubai. The UAE has a growing Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses serving kosher meals.
Rimon Market, the Kogan-owned Kosher grocery store on Dubai’s busy Al Wasl Road, closed on Sunday. As wars have engulfed the region, the store has been the target of online protests by pro-Palestinians. Mezuzahs in front and behind the market’s doors appeared to have been removed when an Associated Press reporter passed by on Sunday.
Kogan’s wife, Rivky, is an American citizen living with him in the UAE. He is the nephew of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in 2008 in Mumbai.
The UAE is the governing body of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and is home to Abu Dhabi. Local Jewish officials in the UAE declined to comment.
Although the Israeli statement did not mention Iran, Iranian intelligence has in the past kidnapped in the UAE.
Western officials believe that Iran is conducting intelligence operations in the UAE and is monitoring hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.
Iran is accused of kidnapping and later killing British Iranian citizen Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, although Tehran denies any involvement. Iran also kidnapped Iranian-German Jamshid Sharmahd in 2020 from Dubai, returning him to Tehran, where he was executed in October.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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