Pentagon reportedly raises Israel spying threat level to critical

The Pentagon’s intelligence arm has raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to “critical,” the highest level, amid U.S. concerns that Israel is intensifying efforts to monitor American officials during a sensitive dispute over the war with Iran, according to reports citing U.S. officials.

NBC News reported that the Defense Intelligence Agency issued the new assessment in recent weeks, citing two current U.S. officials and one former U.S. official. Al Jazeera reported that NBC News first disclosed the change Friday and that The New York Times published a similar account the following day. According to Al Jazeera, the assessed threat level was raised from “high” to “critical.”

The DIA’s internal message and a seven-page document described Israel’s ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection as being at a “critical level,” NBC News reported, citing a current U.S. official who had seen the material. The assessment also identified specific incidents that heightened U.S. concerns, the official said, though NBC reported that officials did not know whether one incident triggered the change.

The concern, according to the officials cited by NBC News, is that Israel is seeking information on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making about conflicts in the Middle East. Al Jazeera, citing NBC News and The New York Times, reported that the surveillance concerns center on top U.S. officials and White House deliberations about ending the war with Iran.

Israel rejected the allegation. A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington said it is “completely false” that Israel spies on the United States. “Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials,” the spokesperson said. “Israel intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated.”

The Pentagon declined to comment to NBC News. A White House official told NBC, “This entire story is false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to NBC’s request for comment, and the Defense Department did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera.

The reported alert comes as President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have diverged over Iran and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon. NBC News reported that the two leaders had a tense phone call this past week, after which Trump acknowledged to reporters that he had called Netanyahu “crazy.”

The U.S. and Israel launched the war with Iran on Feb. 28, and a ceasefire was reached in early April, according to NBC News. Al Jazeera reported the ceasefire date as April 8 and said fighting has been mostly paused since then, while efforts to reach a lasting agreement have stalled. Trump has sought a diplomatic deal with Iran to end the war, while Netanyahu has publicly expressed skepticism that Iran would honor any negotiated deal and has pushed for renewed bombing raids, according to NBC News.

The New York Times reported, according to Al Jazeera, that the DIA cited an increase in Israeli intelligence activity beginning in late 2024, as the Biden administration pressured Israel over the war in Gaza, and continuing into 2025 as Trump returned to office and weighed his approach to Iran. The Times also reported that recent intelligence assessments documented Israeli efforts to monitor Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, Pentagon policy official Elbridge Colby and Colby’s deputy, Michael DiMino IV.

Officials told NBC News that Israel’s recent activity has gone beyond typical espionage between allies. “The U.S. already takes extra precautions when visiting Israel,” one current U.S. official said. “They’re well-known to aggressively collect.”

Emily Harding of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said Israel has “a hyper-aggressive intelligence service.” She added, “They are exceedingly interested in what we are up to.”

Despite the heightened alert, NBC News reported that officials did not see an impact on daily high-level intelligence sharing between the countries, particularly related to the Iran war.