Jerusalem — Israel condemned Sunday the murder of a rabbi in the United Arab Emirates, calling it an anti-Semitic “terrorist attack” and vowing to use all means to deal with his killers.
The body of Tzvi Kogan, who had been missing since Thursday, was found by security services in the Gulf Arab state, the prime minister’s office and the foreign ministry said in a joint statement.
Kogan was a former Israeli army soldier, who served in Israel’s Givati Brigade, which is infamous for carrying out violent attacks against Palestinians since the Brigade’s inception in 1948 and its evolution over the decades into a unit accused of violence against civilians time and again.
The Israeli-Moldovan national was living and working in the UAE as a representative of the Chabad Hasidic movement, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group known for its outreach efforts worldwide.
“This murder was carried out in the UAE. The murder of an Israeli citizen and a Chabad emissary, is an abhorrent anti-Semitic terrorist attack,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting.
“The State of Israel will use all means, and will deal with these murderers, and those who dispatched them, to the fullest extent of the law. None of them will get away,” he added, without elaborating.
Israeli officials did not provide any details about the circumstances of Kogan’s murder.
The United Arab Emirates, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020 alongside other countries including Bahrain and Morocco, has yet to confirm his death.
Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that Israel was investigating Kogan’s disappearance in the UAE and treating it as a “terrorist incident”.
“This vile anti-Semitic attack is a reminder of the inhumanity of the enemies of the Jewish people,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a statement.
Herzog said the murder would not “deter us from continuing to grow flourishing communities in the UAE or anywhere”.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz described the killing as a “cowardly and despicable anti-Semitic terrorist crime” in a post on X.
Moldova said its embassy in Abu Dhabi was cooperating with local officials and “closely monitoring the situation, providing the necessary support”.
It only mentioned Kogan was missing and did not refer to his death.
‘Great pain’
Israel renewed a warning for Israelis to avoid any non-essential travel to the UAE, and advised citizens already in the Gulf country to take extra precautions.
On Saturday, an Emirati official had said the foreign ministry was in touch with Kogan’s family and the Moldovan embassy. Emirati authorities had launched a probe.
But Emirati officials have not said anything further about Kogan’s murder.
In a message on X, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement to which Kogan belonged expressed its “great pain” alongside a photo of the rabbi, adding that he had been “murdered by terrorists after being abducted on Thursday”.
The UAE, which is made up of seven emirates, prides itself on being a tolerant and safe country for residents and visitors of all faiths.
The oil-rich Gulf state, whose population is made up mainly of expatriates, opened an interfaith center last year in Abu Dhabi housing a mosque, a church and a synagogue.
But the war in Gaza triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 has sparked rising anger in the Middle East.
In Jordan, a man was killed Sunday after opening fire on and wounding three members of the security forces near the Israeli embassy in the capital Amman, state media said, in an incident described by the government spokesman as a “terrorist attack”.
Investigations were underway to uncover the circumstances and motives behind the attack.