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The Pentagon’s military intelligence arm has raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to “critical,” its highest possible designation, amid growing alarm that Israeli spy agencies are aggressively monitoring senior American officials to extract information about the Trump administration’s internal deliberations on ending the war with Iran.

NBC News first reported the development on Friday, June 5. The New York Times followed with its own account the next day, adding significant new detail. Both outlets cited current and former US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

What the assessment says

The assessment, which was circulated internally in recent weeks, includes a seven-page document and a chart rating Israel’s human and technical intelligence-gathering capabilities as “critical,” according to NBC.

Israel’s counterintelligence threat level now stands higher than that of any other US ally and even higher than some adversarial states, the NYT reported. One senior official described the scale of Israeli intelligence collection against top US officials during the Trump administration’s second term as “unhinged.”

The reported campaign sought to learn Washington’s position in ongoing talks with Tehran. Some officials may have been especially exposed because they used private planes, discussed sensitive business on personal phones and at times declined embassy support abroad.

Who was targeted

The NYT reported that US intelligence has focused on Israeli efforts to eavesdrop on senior officials, including Steve Witkoff, Trump’s top Iran negotiator, Elbridge A Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, and Michael P DiMino IV, one of Colby’s main deputies. Witkoff had been the lead American negotiator in nuclear talks that preceded the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February. Colby has in the past called for a “reset” on the US relationship with Israel.

The NYT also reported that the decision to raise the threat level was taken after US personnel operating in Israel reported that software to tap their communications had been surreptitiously installed on their phones.

A pattern going back years

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) cited an uptick in Israeli intelligence activities beginning in late 2024, when the Biden administration increased pressure on Israel over its war in Gaza. That increase continued into 2025 as Trump returned to the presidency and began shaping his approach to Iran.

Earlier incidents cited in the assessment included Israel’s military intelligence attempting to plant listening devices at DIA headquarters in 2021. In 2025, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, was found to have attempted to plant a similar device in a Secret Service vehicle.

While it is commonplace for allies and adversaries to spy on each other, current and former US officials said Israel’s recent efforts have gone well beyond what is typical and expected. The officials said they did not know if a specific incident triggered the decision to raise the threat level.

Denials come in

The Israeli Embassy in Washington said in a statement that it was “completely false” that Israel spies on the US, adding that “Israel’s intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated.”

The White House said the reports were “false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on.” The Pentagon offered no comment.

The backdrop

The reports land at a moment of open friction between Washington and Tel Aviv. Trump and Netanyahu clashed in a tense phone call this past week over the war with Iran and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, with Trump afterward acknowledging to reporters that he had called Netanyahu “crazy” during the call.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war, while Netanyahu has pushed for operations to continue despite the April 8 ceasefire. The two countries are also currently in the middle of a US Congress debate over a provision in a new defence bill that would integrate American and Israeli weapons research and development to an unprecedented degree, a measure that the spy row is likely to complicate.