The department’s report raises concerns about increased espionage activity amid the US-Israel war on Iran and cease-fire negotiations.
According to US media, the Pentagon’s intelligence division has raised its threat level against Israeli spies from “high” to “severe” in recent weeks.
NBC News first reported the changes on Friday, and the New York Times published its own report the next day.
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The news outlet, citing anonymous sources, said the switch was made in light of concerns about increasingly aggressive tactics in connection with the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
They said the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had raised its alert level over concerns that Israel was increasing its surveillance of U.S. officials. The purpose is said to be to understand internal discussions within the White House about ending the war.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have made public their differences in approach to the war that began on February 28th between the US and Israel.
President Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly said he wants to end the war amid mounting political pressure at home.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a resumption of the war despite the April 8 ceasefire. Fighting has largely ceased since a temporary truce was announced, but efforts to reach a permanent agreement have repeatedly stalled.
The New York Times noted that while Israel is known to spy on the United States, DIA activity has increased since the end of 2024 as the administration of US President Joe Biden ramped up pressure on Israel over its genocidal war in Gaza.
This increase continued into 2025 as President Trump returned to office and began discussing how to approach Iran.
The paper added that other recent intelligence assessments have documented evidence of Israeli efforts to monitor President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as the Pentagon’s top policy official, Elbridge Colby, and his aide, Michael Dimino IV.
Witkoff was the lead negotiator in the nuclear negotiations that preceded the first U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran in February.
NBC News and the New York Times both cited unnamed U.S. officials in their reports. The U.S. Department of Defense did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
However, an anonymous spokesperson told both media outlets that the reports were “false”.
Still, the reported concerns are likely to raise questions about the close intelligence and military cooperation between Israel and the United States.
Washington has provided billions of dollars in military aid and arms sales to Israel over the years, including throughout the genocide in Gaza.
The U.S. Congress is currently considering portions of a new national defense bill that would integrate weapons research and development from both countries to an unprecedented degree.
The United States and its allies are known to regularly spy on each other, but officials told NBC and the New York Times that Israel’s recent push is unique.
The New York Times reported that the increase in DIA designations exceeds not only all of its current allies, but also a handful of countries with which it has more fraught relations.
Recent incidents include Israeli military intelligence attempting to install wiretaps at DIA headquarters in 2021, the paper said.
The report found that Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, attempted to implant similar devices in Secret Service vehicles in 2025.
