The UAE, where the dual Israel-Moldovan national went missing, has diplomatic relations with the country [Getty/file photo]
An investigation has been launched into the disappearance of an Israeli-Moldovan dual citizen who lives in the United Arab Emirates and has been missing since Thursday, the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Saturday.
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”, without providing further details.
The missing man was identified as Zvi Kogan, a representative in the UAE of Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish group that has chapters around the world and seeks to build links with non-affiliated and secular Jews or other sects of Judaism.
The UAE’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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.
Kogan had served in the Israeli military, according to Israeli media reports.
The UAE controversially established diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020, as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, which saw three other Arab nations normalise relations with the country.
Israel and the UAE have gone on to sign in trade, tourism deals, the Gulf country has opened an Israeli embassy as part of their normalisation deal.Â
Normalisation between the two triggered uproar among Palestinians, who see the establishing of diplomatic relations with Israel as a betrayal of their cause.
The UAE continues to maintain ties with Israel amid Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 44,000 Palestinians since October 7 last year.
