Missing Rabbi found dead in UAE, Israel vows tough action against…

Amidst the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Middle East, the body of Zvi Kogan, a Jewish rabbi, was found in the UAE, prompting investigations by Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, and law enforcement agencies in the Gulf country.

Israel-Hamas War: Israel, which is embroiled in a multi-front war with Hamas and its allied entities, including Iran, in the Middle-East, may now find itself at loggerheads with another Gulf nation, the United Arab Emirates. The development comes after a Jewish Rabbi, who went missing on Thursday, was found dead in the UAE.

The body of Zvi Kogan, an envoy for the Orthodox Jewish group, Chabad, was found in the UAE, prompting investigations by Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, and law enforcement agencies in the Gulf country.

A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called the Kogan’s alleged murder “criminal anti-Semitic terrorist incident”, while asserting that the Jewish nation will use “all its resources” to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“The murder of Zvi Kogan is a criminal anti-Semitic terrorist act. The State of Israel will use all its resources to bring the perpetrators to justice,” read the statement from the Israeli PM’s office.

According to Israeli officials, the Zvi Kogan, an Israeli-Moldovan national, was reported missing on Thursday, following which UAE’s interior ministry launched searches to locate him. A report by British broadcaster BBC reported said the ministry is also investigating the Rabbi’s killing, along with the country’s law enforcement agencies, as well as Israel’s Mossad.

Notably, UAE had formalised its ties with Israel via the US-brokered Abraham Accords, and had upheld this relationship during the Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas in Palestine, and its multi-front war with Iran and its ‘axis of resistance’ allies, such as the Yemeni Houthis, and the Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But, despite the formalised relations, Israel has issued a travel advisory for its citizens, urging them to visit UAE only for “essential reasons,” due to “terrorist activity” which poses a “real risk” to Israeli citizens in the Gulf nation.