Israeli-Moldovan rabbi living in UAE is missing. Israeli officials fear he may have been kidnapped

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Israeli-Moldovan rabbi living in the United Arab Emirates has gone missing, with Israeli authorities raising the suspicion Saturday he may have been kidnapped as tensions remain high with Iran.

Israeli media citing unnamed security sources reported that Zvi Kogan, who has been missing since noon Thursday, may have been kidnapped. The Israeli prime minister’s office on Saturday night acknowledged Kogan’s disappearance, without elaborating.

His disappearance comes as Iran has been threatening to retaliate against Israel after it launched a strike in October hitting sensitive military bases in the country. Tehran twice has launched missile attacks on Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon.

“Since (Kogan’s) disappearance, and against the backdrop of information that this was a terrorist incident, an extensive investigation has been opened in the country,” the prime minister’s office said. “Israeli intelligence and security agencies are working continuously out of concern for the well-being and safety of Zvi Kogan.”

Israeli media described the rabbi as a veteran of the Israeli military’s 84th Givati Brigade.

The Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of Orthodox Judaism, said Kogan was last seen in Dubai. A video circulating on social media showed him earlier in the week at a Kosher grocery store in the city-state.

The Chabad Lubavitch movement also described Kogan as being an emissary of the branch, which is based in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood in New York.

“Our emissaries are working closely with authorities as they investigate his disappearance,” the movement’s chairman, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, said in a statement.

Early Sunday, the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency acknowledged Kogan’s 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 “missing and out of contact.”

“Specialized authorities immediately began search and investigation operations upon receiving the report,” the Interior Ministry said.

The Emirati Foreign Ministry separately described the Interior Ministry search as involving “extensive measures.”

The Foreign Ministry “is in close contact with his family to provide them with all means of necessary support,” it added.

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, where he was executed in October.

Iranian state media later acknowledged Kogan’s disappearance, without elaborating.

The UAE diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020. Since then, Israelis have come to the UAE to set up businesses and vacation. Emirati airlines have been a key link for Israel to the rest of the world as other carriers have stopped flying to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv amid the wars.

The UAE also has a burgeoning Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses catering to kosher diners. However, the Mideast wars have sparked deep anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals from other states and others living in the UAE.