Israel’s defence ministry remained tight-lipped on Monday following the instant dismissal of the country’s missile defence head amid reports he was found with classified information on his personal laptop.
Yair Ramati had been sacked for a “grave breach of information security” and relevant authorities would take the case further, the ministry said in a statement.
Israeli media reports said Ramati had broken protocol when he transferred the documents to his computer, which would have made them easier to steal.
Colleagues were shocked when Ramati wassacked following a recent period of success. Arrow 3, designed to counter ballistic missiles, hit a target in space to pass its first full test early in December and a week later Ramati said David’s Sling, which guards against medium-range threats, had ended its testing phase and would be deployed by the Israeli air force.
The former director of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, Uzi Eilam, toldIsrael Radio he had known Ramati for 30 years and found the news “hard to believe”.
“I don’t understand, and I don’t know what happened and what exactly he is supposed to have done. The field is losing a great man, even though nobody is irreplaceable. This is very, very regrettable.”
Ramati had worked on Israel’s missile defence programme since 1981 and headed Homa, the missile defence agency, for four years. Israeli military scientist Yitzhak Ben Israel said Ramati was a “very talented man” and “his ousting was a loss for Israel”.
Several Israeli military officers have been fired recently after breaching security. Ilan Levy, commander of a northern brigade in Israel, was fired after his car was stolen with a file inside that contained confidential documents. Israel’s internal security service and police were later able to locate the car and found the documents still inside.
Lt Col Elad Marom, son of the former head of the Israeli air force, was also removed from his post for “providing information to an unauthorised individual”.
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