On 21 November 2024, Zvi Kogan (Hebrew: צבי קוגן, born 11 August 1996), an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi residing in the United Arab Emirates, was abducted and killed.
[6] Before he moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), he served his mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces' 84th "Givati" Infantry Brigade.
[10] She is the niece of Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, a Chabad rabbi who was murdered with his wife by an Islamist militant group in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in India.
[11][12] Kogan was a rabbi, and a representative of the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic organization Chabad's Abu Dhabi chapter.
He then failed to attend a dental appointment and his wife lost contact with him, leading her to alert a Chabad security chief, who in turn notified local authorities.
[28] Kogan's car and phone were found abandoned in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, 150 kilometres (93 mi) from Dubai and on the border of Oman.
[27] Investigators later said that the assailants tracked Kogan's movements, and then kidnapped him and transported him to Al Ain in his own car, where he was killed.
[10] On 24 November, the UAE Ministry of Interior announced the arrest of three Uzbekistan citizens suspected of kidnapping and murdering Kogan.
His burial ceremonies began in the evening of 25 November, at 770 in the Chabad-Lubavitch town of Kfar Chabad in central Israel, and proceeded to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where he was buried.
[44][45] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that he was "deeply shocked" by the killing and vowed that all means would be used to bring the killers, and "those who dispatched them", to justice.
[47] The killing occurred as Iran had threatened to retaliate to Israeli airstrikes on its territory on 26 October that took place during a period of heightened tensions between the two countries.
[49] Moldovan president Maia Sandu wrote on X that "we mourn the tragic loss" of Kogan and "strongly condemn this hateful act".
"[51] U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a call with the Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, denounced the kidnapping and killing of Kogan.