“Specialised authorities immediately began search and investigation operations upon receiving the report,” the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry later said three “perpetrators” had been arrested “in record time” without giving additional details.

Netanyahu told a regular cabinet meeting later on Sunday that he was “deeply shocked” by Kogan’s disappearance and death. He said he appreciated the cooperation of the UAE in the investigation and that ties between the two countries would continue to be strengthened.

Israel’s largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the killing and thanked Emirati authorities for “their swift action”. He said he trusts they “will work tirelessly to bring the perpetrators to justice”.

Israel also again warned against all nonessential travel to the Emirates after Kogan’s killing.

“There is concern that there is still a threat against Israelis and Jews in the area,” a government warning issued Sunday said.

Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism based in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighbourhood in New York City. It said he was last seen in Dubai. The UAE has a burgeoning Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses catering to kosher diners.

The Rimon Market, a kosher grocery store Kogan managed on Dubai’s busy Al Wasl Road, was shut on Sunday. As the wars have roiled the region, the store has been the target of online protests by supporters of the Palestinians. Mezuzahs on the front and back doors of the market appeared to have been ripped off when an Associated Press journalist stopped by on Sunday.

Kogan’s wife, Rivky, is a US citizen who lived with him in the UAE. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The UAE is an autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and is also home to Abu Dhabi. Local Jewish officials in the UAE declined to comment.

While the Israeli statement did not mention Iran, Iranian intelligence services have carried out past kidnappings in the UAE.

Ayoob Kara, a member of Israel’s ruling right-wing Likud party who promotes economic relations between Israel and the Arab world, said there were indications that investigators suspected Iranian involvement, Reuters reported.

The Iranian embassy in the UAE said it “categorically rejects the allegations of Iran’s involvement in the murder of this individual”.

Western officials believe Iran runs intelligence operations in the UAE and keeps tabs on the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.

Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British Iranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, though Tehran has denied involvement. Iran also kidnapped Iranian German national Jamshid Sharmahd in 2020 from Dubai, taking him back to Tehran, where he was executed in October.