Israel, the United States' closest ally in the Middle East, was the source of highly classified information that President Trump passed to top Russian officials in the White House.

Israel wouldn't comment on the report in the Times, which the paper sourced to a current and former intelligence official.

But it immediately threw attention on a key Middle East ally, with whom Trump has invoked an 'unbreakable bond.'

Former Mossad director Danny Yatom told The Jerusalem Post this could be a 'grave violation' of intelligence sharing protocol if it's true and could l'lead to harm to the source.'

'We will think twice before conveying very sensitive information,' said Yatom.

Asked how the U.S. government can move on after the president's disclosure to the Russians, Yatom said, 'It can be repaired by asking again the Americans not to do it, not to convey such a nature of information, which is very sensitive and probably after a short period of time, the relations will be recovered, unless the phenomena of conveying information to a third party will continue.'

The Israeli government considers it to be facing an existential threat in Iran, with whom Russia maintains historic ties. Israeli officials are already expressing concern that information Israel passed on to the U.S. could somehow find its way back to Iran.

Scroll down for video

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) shake hands following a joint news conference at the East Room of the White House February 15, 2017 in Washington

There were reports Monday that the information came from a Middle Eastern ally. The information reportedly pertained to an ISIS-driven bomb-making technique.

Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, said in a statement that: 'Israel has full confidence in our intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States and looks forward to deepening that relationship in the years ahead under President Trump.'

His statement provided a lifeline to the embattled White House, which has tried to bat away concerns that Trump may have inadvertently given away sources and methods by passing on the information.

National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Trump's disclosure was 'wholly appropriate,' and did not reveal sources and methods. Asked whether Trump revealed the city in Syria where the information came from, he said most ISIS strongholds are well known to media consumers.

Donald J. Trump and Ron Dermer, Ambassador of Israel to the United States, attended the Wharton Club's 44th Annual Wharton Award Dinner at the Park Hyatt Washington hotel on October 22, 2014 in Washington. Dermer said in a statement 'Israel has full confidence in our intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States'

LET'S TALK: David Friedman, (R) the new United States Ambassador to Israel, with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (L) in the president's Jerusalem residence as Friedman presents his credentials on 16 May 2017

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, February 15, 2017

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Trump has exhibited a special bond with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Trump's inveighing against the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal matched up with Netnyahu's view.

Dermer told AIPAC this spring: 'For the first time in many years, perhaps even many decades, there is no daylight between our two governments.'

At an off-camera briefing with reporters, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he couldn't comment on the report on Israel, which maintains its heralded Mossad spy organization.

'I'm obviously pleased to see Ambassador Dermer's comment,' said Spicer.

'We appreciate the relationship that we have with Israel and appreciate the exchange of information that we have with them,' he added, without commenting further.

President Trump defended himself against an onslaught of criticism on Tuesday morning after a report said he shared 'highly classified' information with the Russians about ISIS operations that came from a US ally.

'As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism,' Trump said in two tweets.

ALL SMILES: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US President Donald Trump, and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak (L-R) talking during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House. Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

ALL (WELL, SOME OF) THE PRESIDENT'S LEAKS The Trump administration has found itself hamstrung by a series of high-profile leaks to reporters. This week's Washington Post story describing the president sharing allegedly classified Israeli intelligence with Russian diplomats is only the latest example. Some of the resulting news stories put the White House in full-blown spin mode, while others have turned out to be inauthentic. January 25: The New York Times described a leaked draft of an executive order that would reopen CIA 'black site' prisons where terror suspects could be interrogated. Sean Spicer later said it was 'not a White House document,' and he had 'no idea where it came from.' February 2: News reports describe an angry Trump berating Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a refugee resettlement deal negotiated by the Obama administration. February 2: The Associated Press published an excerpt of a leaked transcript of a call between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in which Trump tells him he could send American troops to the border to deal with 'bad hombres down there.' February 5: The Times spoke to West Wing aides who revealed that they couldn't figure out how to work the light switches in the White House's Cabinet Room – and had to work in the dark as a result. February 9: The Washington Post leaned on classified information to report that then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had discussed the status of U.S. sanctions against Russia during secret meetings in December with Moscow's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. February 13: The Post reported that Sally Yates, dureing the days before she was removed from her post as acting attorney general, warned the Trump White House's top lawyer that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his Kislyak contacts. February 14: The New York Times reported that Flynn was questioned by the FBI only a few days into his White House tenure, and that agents came away from the meeting believing he hadn't told them the whole truth about his Kislyak meetings. February 17: The Associated Press publishes an 11-page Homeland Security Department memo that proposed using 100,000 National Guard troops to police the southern U.S. border. (The White House said it was not an official document.) April 8: White House staffers dished dirt to the Post about a rapprochement between warring senior aides Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon – brokered by CHief of Staff Reince Priebus. May 15: The Post reported, based on leaks from 'current and former U.S. officials,' that the president revealed 'highly classified' information about the ISIS terror army to Russian diplomats in the Oval Office, upsetting a U.S. ally that had been the source of intelligence Trump handed over willingly. The White House insisted that none of the people in the room with Trump and the Russians saw the information exchange that way. May 16: The Times revealed, based on another leak, that it was Israel that had provided the intel in the first place. Israel's ambassador to the U.S. reaffirmed his country's willingness to work with Washington in the future. Advertisement

The disclosure ensures that Trump will have plenty to discuss when he visits Israel, where Trump will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pray at the Western Wall.

National security advisor H.R. McMaster, asked Tuesday sked if Trump thinks the wall is part of Israel, responded: 'That sounds like a policy decision.'

Netanyahu reportedly asked to join Trump as he prayed at the wall, but a U.S. official told him the site is 'not your territory,' the Associated Press reported, citing on reports out of Israel.

An Israeli intelligence officer told Buzzfeed News the information making its way to Russia represented Israel's 'worst fears confirmed.'

'We have an arrangement with America which is unique to the world of intelligence sharing. We do not have this relationship with any other country,' said the intelligence officer.

'There is a special understanding of security cooperation between our countries,' the officer continued. 'To know that this intelligence is shared with others, without our prior knowledge? That is, for us, our worst fears confirmed.'

The publication had reported in January about Israel's concerns Trump would pass information to the Russians, interviewing the same officer at the time.

'There has to be trust for this sort of arrangement. I cannot speak for Israel's entire security apparatus, but I would not trust a partner who shared intelligence without coordinating it with us first,' the officer concluded.