Missing Israeli rabbi who lived in UAE found dead, 3 arrested
A missing Israeli rabbi was found dead with three suspects being arrested in connection with the incident, according to a Jewish organization, United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The Ministry of Interior announced that the UAE authorities have arrested in record time the three perpetrators involved in the murder of Zvi Kogan, a Moldovan national according to his identification documents at the time of entry into the UAE, where he lived as a resident,” the UAE’s Ministry of Interior said Sunday in a post on the social platform X.
According to the Jewish organization Chabad, Kogan was a rabbi and “emissary based in Abu Dhabi” for the group. Chabad also said that he was “a dual Israeli-Moldovan citizen.”
“The Ministry further explained that upon receiving a missing person report from the victim’s family, a specialized search and investigation team was promptly assembled,” the UAE’s Ministry of Interior said in their Sunday post.
“This led to the discovery of the victim’s body, the identification and arrest of the perpetrators, and the initiation of the necessary legal procedures. Full details of the incident will be disclosed upon the conclusion of the investigations,” the post continued.
On Sunday, Netanyahu said in his own post on X, according to a Google translation, that he “would like to express deep shock - in my name, in the name of all the members of the government, in the name of the citizens of Israel and in the name of the entire people of Israel - at the kidnapping and murder of the late Zvi Kogan, may God bless his blood.”
“This murder was committed in the United Arab Emirates. The murder of an Israeli citizen and Chabad emissary is a criminal anti-Semitic terrorist attack,” Netanyahu continued.
Sean Savett, a White House National Security Council spokesperson, denounced in a statement Sunday “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.”
Updated at 8:40 pm EST.