5 hours Ago
ISRAEL HAS SAID that an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi was murdered in the United Arab Emirates, describing it as an act of anti-Semitic “terrorism”, and vowing to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice. “The intelligence and security authorities in the United Arab Emirates have located the body of Tzvi Kogan, who had been missing since Thursday, November 21,” the prime minister’s office and the foreign ministry said in a joint statement. “The murder of Tzvi Kogan, of blessed memory, is a heinous act of antisemitic terrorism,” it said, adding that Israel would do everything in its power “to ensure that justice is served and that those responsible for his death are held accountable.
” Kogan was an emissary for the ultra-Orthodox Chabad Hasidic movement in the UAE. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had on Saturday said Israel was investigating Kogan’s disappearance in the UAE as a “terrorist incident”. It 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 said the foreign ministry was in touch with Kogan’s family and the Moldovan embassy in Abu Dhabi. Emirati authorities had launched an investigation and were searching for the missing man, the official added. The UAE normalised relations with Israel in 2020, alongside other countries including Bahrain and Morocco.
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. Seperately, in Jordan, a man was killed after opening fire on and wounding three members of the security forces near the Israeli embassy in the capital Amman. Government spokesman Mohamed Momani described today’s incident as a “terrorist attack” and said the assailant was a criminal with a history of drug-related offences.
Investigations were underway to uncover the circumstances and motives behind the attack, which occurred at dawn, he told the official Petra news agency. The Public Security Directorate, Jordan’s law enforcement agency, earlier reported an exchange of fire in the Amman district of Rabieh, where the Israeli embassy is located. It said three public security personnel were injured during the incident and were receiving treatment.
Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, has maintained largely stable relations with its neighbour. But the Rabieh district has been a focal point for protests against the Israeli embassy since Israel’s war against the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas erupted in the Gaza Strip in October last year. On October 18, two Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood members were killed in a firefight with Israeli forces near the Dead Sea.
And in September, a Jordanian truck driver shot dead three Israeli guards at the Allenby crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank..
