A senior Israeli officer’s stolen classified phone raises alarms as hostile threats exploit any weakness.
A troubling security incident has come to light after Yedioth Aharonoth revealed that Brig. Gen. Guy Markizeno, currently Defense Minister Israel Katz’s military secretary, lost his classified military smartphone—apparently during a robbery carried out under unusually sensitive conditions.
The device has still not been recovered, forcing military cyber teams to remotely neutralize it to prevent hostile exploitation. The stunning twist: the event occurred months earlier, when Yoav Gallant was serving as Defense Minister—yet Gallant was never informed, despite the extraordinary sensitivity of the officer’s role and the classified material the device may have contained.
Gallant’s office issued a sharp response, stating that the former Defense Minister had zero knowledge of the incident until a journalist contacted him for comment. “He was not updated at any stage—neither by his military secretary nor by any security official,” the statement said.
The IDF confirmed the incident but insisted that it was handled instantly, claiming that Markizeno reported the theft immediately and security teams took all measures to prevent an intelligence breach. According to the army, the device was locked down, investigated, and no data leak was detected.
However, the IDF pointedly refused to say whether any disciplinary action was taken against Brig. Gen. Markizeno—an omission that has fueled speculation about internal accountability gaps within the defense establishment.
The affair raises uncomfortable questions:
• Why was the Defense Minister not informed?
• How was a classified phone stolen under such sensitive circumstances?
• And who, if anyone, has access to the unrecovered device?
At a moment when Israel’s enemies search relentlessly for intelligence weaknesses, the silence surrounding the incident only deepens the concern.
