Israel has said that a rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found murdered.

Zvi Kogan, an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who worked in the UAE for an Orthodox Jewish group called Chabad, had not been seen since Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, denouncing his death as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act” and vowing to ensure the perpetrators were brought to justice.

“The state of Israel will use all means at its disposal to bring the criminals responsible for his death to justice,” the prime minister’s statement said.

The UAE foreign ministry did not immediately comment. On Saturday, an Emirati official said the foreign ministry was in touch with Kogan’s family and the Moldovan embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Israeli authorities reissued their recommendation against all non-essential travel to the UAE and said visitors currently there should minimise movement and remain in secure areas.

The UAE normalised relations with Israel in 2020, alongside other countries including Bahrain and Morocco. But the war in Gaza triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 has sparked rising anger in the Middle East.

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