Defense expert Zeev Schiff, one of Israel’s most-respected and well-known journalists, has died, his newspaper, Ha’aretz, announced. He was 74.

Schiff died Tuesday night, June 19, the newspaper said. It did not disclose a cause of death.

Schiff covered military and defense issues for Ha’aretz for more than 50 years, serving as the paper’s defense editor in recent years. He published numerous books and contributed articles to Foreign Policy, National Interest, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.

Born in France in 1932, Schiff immigrated to Israel in 1935. He served as an intelligence officer in the Israeli military and studied Middle Eastern affairs at Tel Aviv University.

His book “October Earthquake and the Yom Kippur War” earned Israel’s highest journalism award, the Sokolov Prize.

Schiff is survived by his wife and two sons.