An investigation has been launched into the disappearance of an Israeli-Moldovan dual citizen who lives in the UAE and has been missing since Thursday.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that the missing man identified as Zvi Kogan was an envoy of Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish group.
Chabad has chapters around the world and seeks to build links with non-affiliated and secular Jews or other sects of Judaism.
It said in a statement that authorities in the Gulf country had opened the investigation based on information that the man’s disappearance was related to “a terrorist incident”.
The Mossad spy agency is leading the investigation, the office said in a statement.
“Israeli security and intelligence organisations, concerned for Zvi Kogan’s safety and wellbeing, have been working tirelessly on this case,” it added.
The UAE’s state news agency later said the interior ministry was searching for the missing man and investigating his disappearance.
The Director of the Foreign Nationals Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry, Majed Al Mansoori, said that the UAE is monitoring the disappearance of Chabad emissary Zvi Kogan.
The UAE interior ministry said that Abu Dhabi is “implementing extensive measures in its search for” Rabbi Zvi Kogan.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Al Mansoori as saying that the UAE is “in close contact with his [Kogan’s] family to provide them with all means of necessary support.”
He added that the ministry was also in contact with the Moldovan Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
Chabad UAE declined to comment.
The group’s branch in the UAE supports thousands of Jewish visitors and residents in the country, providing religious and social services to Jewish people across the Gulf region, according to its website.
The UAE became the most prominent Arab state in 30 years to establish formal ties with Israel under a U.S.-brokered agreement in 2020, dubbed the Abraham Accords.
It has maintained the relationship during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
