A number of Western countries including the UK and US have issued security alerts over the weekend for their citizens living in or traveling to the United Arab Emirates, warning about threats of attacks against sites in the Gulf nation associated with Israel and Jewish people.

In a statement on its website on Friday the US embassy and consulate in the UAE said it was “aware of information indicating threats toward the Jewish and Israeli communities” in the country and urged its citizens to avoid locations associated with these communities.

The UK’s Foreign Office released a similar warning, citing the US alert and adding that “terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in the UAE.”

The alerts came after Israel’s National Security Council on July 31 “strongly” advised its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to the UAE and “seriously” reconsider going there. It said that Iran and its proxies including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, along with other extremists, have increased “their efforts to harm Israel.”

Israel’s NSC added that its “assessment is that they are driven by heightened motivation to exact revenge” for its strikes on Iran and its ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and sparked UN warnings of starvation.

The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last November, Zvi Kogan, an Israeli-Moldovan ultra-Orthodox rabbi who ran a kosher grocery store in Dubai, was abducted and murdered. Later, the UAE’s Ministry of Interior said it had arrested three Uzbeks in connection with the killing but gave no motive.

Israel said Kogan was killed because he was Jewish and Israeli media said Iran was connected to the plot. Iran’s embassy in the UAE denied involvement.

Israel and the UAE normalized ties as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020 and Israelis flocked to the country for business and tourism until the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the ensuing war in Gaza. (BusinessDay)