UAE Detains 3 Over Killing Of Israeli Rabbi

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

JERUSALEM/ABU DHABI (Worthy News) – The United Arab Emirates said Monday police arrested three Uzbek nationals for the killing of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi in an assassination that Israel called an “antisemitic terror act.”

The Emirati interior ministry said all legal powers would be used “to respond decisively and without leniency to any actions or attempts that threaten societal stability.”

Zvi Kogan was found dead Sunday in the Emirati city of Al Ain, which borders Oman, around 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Abu Dhabi, said former Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara and other sources.

The ultra-Orthodox rabbi, who went missing Thursday, was a representative of Chabad, a religious movement of Hasidic Jews with communities, synagogues, and other institutions in many countries.

The 28-year-old also ran a kosher grocery store in Dubai, a futuristic city to which Israelis have flocked for commerce and tourism since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in the 2020 Abraham Accords.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing of Kogan, who also held Moldovan citizenship. He warned that “The State of Israel will use all means at its disposal to bring the criminals responsible for his death to justice.”

Soon after, the UAE’s Interior Ministry identified three arrested men: Olimboy Tohirovich, 28; Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, 28; and Azizbek Kamilovich, 33.

IRAN RESPONSIBLE?

Israel has suggested that Iran ordered the killing of the rabbi, perhaps in response to recent Israeli attacks against the Islamic Republic after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles and drones at the Jewish nation.

The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency carried images of the three arrested men, blindfolds covering their faces in prison uniforms and flip flops.

The Interior Ministry said the preliminary probe into the men is “in preparation for referring them to the public prosecution for further investigation. ”

It wasn’t immediately clear if the three men had lawyers or had sought consular assistance in the UAE, an autocratically ruled nation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula.

UAE’s fast move in bringing alleged suspects to justice underscored the bilateral cooperation under the Abraham Accords despite soaring regional tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza triggered by the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in southern Israel.

Yet Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon after months of fighting with the Hezbollah group angered Emiratis, Arab nationals, and other critics living in the UAE.

With the war ongoing, it was not clear if diplomatic cooperation between Israel and the USE would be maintained for long.

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