US identifies Israel as ‘critical’ counterintelligence threat amid rising espionage fears

The Pentagon in a recent development has flagged Israel as a “critical level” counterintelligence threat amid heightened espionage fears.

According to two US officials and one former US official as reported by NBC, the development comes as Washington is highly concerned that Israel is boosting its spying efforts on the US through burner phones and cautious hotel stays.

In recent weeks, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) issued the new counterintelligence threat assessment, strengthening these claims regarding espionage.

In the assessment, the agency raised the threat level for Israel to “critical level” based on high-end human intelligence gathering and technical surveillance. The announcement comes as both countries have been experiencing friction over the way forward in conflict with Iran.

This assessment, based on a seven-page report, stems from intelligence indicating that Israel has actively targeted high-ranking US officials to gain insights into the Trump administration’s internal strategy and decision-making regarding Middle Eastern conflicts.

The internal assessment report could escalate intelligence tensions between the US and its top ally in the Middle East.

In response to these claims, the Israeli spokesperson in the Washington DC embassy rejected them, calling these findings baseless and completely false.

“Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials. Israel intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated.” the spokesperson said.

The Pentagon has not yet confirmed the veracity of the report but a White House official denied the information, citing, "This entire story is false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on.”