Three people have been arrested in the United Arab Emirates in connection with the alleged murder of an Israeli citizen, the Emirati interior ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry statement did not give details on the suspects or say if they had been charged, but said all legal powers would be used "to respond decisively and without leniency to any actions or attempts that threaten societal stability".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office had denounced the killing of the rabbi, Zvi Kogan, 28, as a "heinous anti-semitic terrorist act" and said Israel would do everything it could to bring those responsible to justice.

Local authorities say Kogan was a resident of the UAE and a Moldovan national.

He worked with the New York-based Orthodox Jewish Chabad movement and was reported missing on Thursday. His body was found on Sunday.

He ran a kosher grocery store in Dubai, where Israelis have flocked for commerce and tourism since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in the 2020 Abraham Accords.

The agreement has held through more than a year of soaring regional tensions unleashed by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack into southern Israel.

But Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza and its attack of Lebanon, after months of fighting with the Hezbollah militant group, have stoked anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals and others living in the UAE.

Early on Sunday, the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency acknowledged Kogan’s disappearance but pointedly did not acknowledge he held Israeli citizenship, referring to him only as being Moldovan. (Agencies)