WSJ: Israel provided the US with intelligence for strikes on Houthis discussed in Signal chat, now disappointed by leak

Israel provided classified intelligence on a key Yemeni Houthi military commander whose attack was described by Trumpʼs national security adviser Mike Waltz in a secret Signal chat, where he accidentally added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.

This is reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

When the US began striking, Waltz wrote that a Houthi missile expert, who was one of the main targets of the attack, went to his girlfriendʼs house. And that house was destroyed.

One American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Israeli officials expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that these messages from Waltz became public.

The fact that Israel provided intelligence that helped track down the Houthi indicates how sensitive some of the details in these messages were. It also could cast doubt on the Trump administrationʼs claim that the Signal chatrooms did not leak classified information.

In the chat, Waltz did not specify where he got the intelligence, but in another message he wrote that the US had "multiple confirmed identifications".

What preceded

The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine Jeffrey Goldberg said that he was accidentally added to a chat on the Signal messenger, where the American operation against the Houthis was being discussed.

He was added to the chat by an account under the name Mike Waltz, the name of the US Presidentʼs national security adviser. According to Goldberg, the chat contained information about targets, the weapons the US would use, and the sequence of attacks. Shortly after, direct attacks on Yemen took place.

There were only 18 people in this chat, including accounts writing on behalf of the Vice President JD Vance, the Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Trump advisor Steve Witkoff, and others.

Goldberg then sent emails to a number of officials who were present in the chat, asking if he was genuine and if they knew they had added a journalist to it. Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, responded, confirming the authenticity of the Signal groupʼs message.

US President Donald Trump, commenting on the situation, supported Waltz. He will not be fired. He also stated that although the journalist from The Atlantic accidentally got into a private chat about military plans, his presence “in no way affected” the strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.

The US national security adviser took responsibility for the incident, saying that someone else was supposed to be added to the chat instead of the journalist, but the number was mistakenly added to someone elseʼs list. He said they were now trying to figure out whether it was a mistake or a technical issue. Waltz did not say who exactly was supposed to be added to the chat.

The head of the Pentagon, the directors of the US National Intelligence and CIA, as well as President Donald Trump, denied that military plans and classified information were discussed on the Signal messenger. Therefore, journalists from The Atlantic decided to publish them.

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