Residents and activists in central Bosnia clean up a lake after massive floods

JABLANICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Residents and activists on Sunday pulled out heaps of debris and trash from a lake in a central Bosnian region that was devastated by deadly floods and landslides more than two weeks ago.

Using boats and motor vehicles, the volunteers scooped up plastics, wood and other objects that were swept away by raging waters during the rainstorm in early October and ended up in the Lake Jablanica.

Twenty-seven people died in floods and landslides on the night of Oct. 4, 19 of them in the village of Donja Jablanica, where rocks from a hillside quarry unleashed by floodwaters buried houses.

“I was born at this lake, it's normal that I’m here, helping,” said Ibro Besic from the nearby town of Jablanica. "It would be shameful to just leave all this trash to float. We all want to come and swim here in the summer.”

Bosnia has sought help from neighboring countries and the European Union. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to travel to the areas when she visits the Balkan country next week.

Authorities in Jablanica said that schools will reopen Monday but pupils can also follow classes online if they do not feel ready to come back to classrooms. The floods have destroyed roads, bridges and the railway.

People clearing the debris at the Lake Jablanica said they had pulled out animal carcases and home appliances, such as refrigerators and stoves in the past days. The lake is normally known for its clear green water that has become tainted by a huge island of waste.

Haris Cosic, who works in the tourism industry in Jablanica, said the effort will continue until everything has been cleared up. Sometimes, he said, they have to improvise.

”We are using quad bikes to pull out the heavy objects," he said. "It will take a lot of time but I hope, we hope, that the operation will be successful.”

An aerial view of a boat carrying bags of trash after devastating floods and landslides put tons of waste in Jablanicko lake near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Aerial view of Ibro Mesic collecting plastic waste from his boat after devastating floods and landslides put tons of waste in Jablanicko lake near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Aerial view of volunteers collecting plastic waste from the shore after devastating floods and landslides put tons of waste in Jablanicko lake near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Aerial view of a boat carrying bags of trash after devastating floods and landslides put tons of waste in Jablanicko lake near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Aerial view mud and waste floating on Jablanicko lake after devastating floods and landslides near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Aerial view of Ibro Mesic rowing his boat through mud and waste after devastating floods and landslides put tons of waste in Jablanicko lake near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Ibro Mesic collects plastic waste from his boat after devastating floods and landslides that put tons of waste in Jablanicko lake near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Aerial view of Ibro Mesic rowing his boat through mud and waste after devastating floods and landslides put tons of waste in Jablanicko lake near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Aerial view of Ibro Mesic collecting plastic waste from his boat after devastating floods and landslides put tons of waste in Jablanicko lake near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Dervis Gabela collects plastic waste from the shore after devastating floods and landslides put tons of waste in Jablanicko lake near Ostrozac, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel said Sunday that the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found after he was killed in what it described as a “heinous antisemitic terror incident.”

The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel “will act with all means to seek justice with the criminals responsible for his death.” There was no immediate comment from the UAE.

Zvi Kogan, 28, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who went missing on Thursday, ran a Kosher grocery store in the futuristic city of 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' Oct. 7, 2023 attack into southern Israel. But Israel's devastating retaliatory offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, after months of fighting with the Hezbollah militant group, have stoked anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals and others living in the the UAE.

Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah, has also been threatening to retaliate against Israel after a wave of airstrikes Israel carried out in October in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack.

The Emirati government did not respond to a request for comment.

Early 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. The Emirati Interior Ministry described Kogan as being “missing and out of contact.”

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

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.”

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 neighborhood 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 that Kogan managed on Dubai’s busy Al Wasl Road, was shut 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 the 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 U.S. 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.

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.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates

A man walks past Rimon Market, a Kosher grocery store managed by the late Rabbi Zvi Kogan, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)