Recent U.S. intelligence reports have raised concerns about Israeli spy agencies eavesdropping on American negotiators working on a peace deal with Iran, amid rising concern over a more general counterintelligence threat by Israel.
Israel and the United States have long known, and tolerated, that each was spying on the other. But an intensified Israeli effort to learn about U.S. positions in talks with Iran has crossed a line, according to some American officials.
The reports include concerns that Israel has stepped up its efforts to eavesdrop on senior American officials, including Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s top negotiator, Elbridge A. Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, and one of his main deputies, Michael P. DiMino IV.
It is not entirely clear why Mr. Colby, who is in charge of Pentagon policy, would be a target. But he is one of the most prominent proponents inside the U.S. government of a restrained foreign policy. Mr. DiMino is in charge of Pentagon policy for the Middle East, making him a person of natural interest to Israel.
Another report, written by the Defense Intelligence Agency and other military intelligence offices and focused on earlier events going back several years, said that the counterintelligence threat level posed by Israel had been increased in recent weeks to the top level, from high to critical. The report, to which the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency contributed, outlines various efforts by Israel to spy on American military personnel and government officials.
The Defense Intelligence Agency report was drafted after incidents in which American defense personnel in Israel detected that software to tap their communications had been surreptitiously installed on their phones.
The report says counterintelligence incidents began increasing in late 2024, as the Biden administration pressed Israel to curb its attacks on Gaza, and continued into 2025, as the Trump administration weighed options to attack Iran.
The report, which incorporated contributions from a number of military intelligence agencies, also details several episodes in recent years. In 2021, Israeli military intelligence officers were caught planting listening devices at D.I.A. headquarters. Last year, officers from Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, were discovered to have tried to plant a listening device in a Secret Service vehicle.
The Defense Department declined to comment. A White House official, speaking on the condition their name not be used, said the account was false.
A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington also disputed claims that Israel poses a counterintelligence threat, saying that Israel does not spy on American officials or entities.
Israel’s counterintelligence threat level is now higher than any other ally and higher than some adversarial countries. Of American allies, only South Korea, which is rated at high in certain situations, approaches the concern with Israel’s espionage efforts, the officials said.
The aggressiveness of the Israeli intelligence collection on top U.S. officials during the second Trump administration has been “unhinged,” one senior official said.
The tendency of some senior Trump administration officials to fly on private aircraft, to conduct national security business on their personal phones and to reject staffing from U.S. embassies abroad made them especially vulnerable targets for the spy services of allies and adversaries alike, said a former senior U.S. official who has dealt extensively with Israel.
Other current officials also acknowledged the use of personal cellphones by top American officials have made them easy targets for eavesdropping.
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