TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) 鈥� Israel said Sunday that the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi has been found after he was killed in what it described as a 鈥渉einous antisemitic terror incident.鈥�
The UAE's Interior Ministry later said authorities arrested three suspects involved in the killing of Zvi Kogan.
The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel 鈥渨ill act with all means to seek justice with the criminals responsible for his death.鈥� Israeli authorities did not say how they determined the killing of Kogan was a terror attack and offered no additional details.
Kogan, 28, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who went missing on Thursday, ran a kosher grocery store in the futuristic city of Dubai, where Israelis have flocked for commerce and tourism since the two countries .
The agreement has held through more than a year of soaring regional tensions unleashed by . But Israel's devastating retaliatory offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, after months of fighting with the Hezbollah militant group, have stoked anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals and others living in the the UAE.
Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah, has also been threatening to retaliate against Israel after in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack. Iran鈥檚 Embassy in Abu Dhabi denied Tehran was involved in the rabbi鈥檚 slaying.
The Emirati government did not respond to a request for comment. However, senior Emirati diplomat Anwer Gargash wrote on the social platform X in Arabic on Sunday that 鈥渢he UAE will remain a home of safety, an oasis of stability, a society of tolerance and coexistence and a beacon of development, pride and advancement.鈥�
Early on Sunday, the UAE鈥檚 state-run WAM news agency acknowledged Kogan鈥檚 disappearance but pointedly did not acknowledge he held Israeli citizenship, referring to him only as being Moldovan. The Emirati Interior Ministry described Kogan as being 鈥渕issing and out of contact.鈥�
鈥淪pecialized authorities immediately began search and investigation operations upon receiving the report,鈥� the Interior Ministry said.
The ministry later said that three 鈥減erpetrators鈥� had been arrested 鈥渋n record time鈥� without giving additional details.
Netanyahu told a regular Cabinet meeting later Sunday that he was 鈥渄eeply shocked鈥� by Kogan's disappearance and death. He said he appreciated the cooperation of the UAE in the investigation and that ties between the two countries would continue to be strengthened.
Israel's largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the killing and thanked Emirati authorities for "their swift action." He said he trusts they 鈥渨ill work tirelessly to bring the perpetrators to justice.鈥�
Israel also again warned against all nonessential travel to the Emirates after Kogan's killing.
鈥淭here is concern that there is still a threat against Israelis and Jews in the area,鈥� a government warning issued Sunday said.
Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism based in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood in New York City. It said he would be buried in Israel.
鈥淭he targeting of Rabbi Kogan was an attempt to destroy the sacred Jewish values that he represented: light, goodness and kindness,鈥� the movement said. 鈥淣o country, no community, no society can afford the loss of these sustaining values.鈥�
The UAE has a burgeoning Jewish community, with and businesses catering to kosher diners.
The Rimon Market, a kosher grocery store that Kogan managed on Dubai鈥檚 busy Al Wasl Road, was shut Sunday. As the wars have roiled the region, the store has been the target of online protests by supporters of the Palestinians. Mezuzahs on the front and back doors of the market appeared to have been ripped off when an Associated Press journalist stopped by on Sunday.
Kogan鈥檚 wife, Rivky, is a U.S. citizen who lived with him in the UAE. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
In a statement, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett called Kogan's killing 鈥渁 horrific crime against all those who stand for peace, tolerance, and coexistence.鈥�
鈥淲e condemn in the strongest terms the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the UAE and our prayers are with his family, the Chabad-Lubavitch community, the broader Jewish community, and all who are mourning his loss,鈥� Savett said.
The UAE is an autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and is also home to Abu Dhabi. Local Jewish officials in the UAE declined to comment.
While the Israeli statement did not mention Iran, Iranian intelligence services have carried out past kidnappings in the UAE.
Western officials believe Iran runs intelligence operations in the UAE and keeps tabs on the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.
Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British Iranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, though Tehran has denied involvement. Iran also kidnapped Iranian German national Jamshid Sharmahd in 2020 from Dubai, taking him back to Tehran, .
___
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Tia Goldenberg And Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press
