The White House has faced backlash after it posted a photo of President Joe Biden meeting with US troops in Israel, with the soldiers’ faces being clear in the picture.
The Biden administration apologised and quickly deleted the image, which could have revealed the troops’ identities.
The picture showed the President shaking hands with a soldier of the Delta Force, which is the US Army’s elite counter-terrorism unit.
Three other soldiers can also be seen in the shot.
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It received more than 6,100 likes and screenshots of the post were shared online.
The caption of the now-deleted post read: “In Israel, President Biden met with first responders to thank them for their bravery and the work they're doing in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks.”
The picture appeared to breach Department of Defence rules by revealing the men’s faces.
Typically, faces of soldiers are blurred for safety reasons in officially released pictures.
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The White house deleted the post an hour later and apologised for the blunder.
“As soon as this was brought to our attention, we immediately deleted the photo,” a White House spokesman told the Daily Mail.
“We regret the error and any issues this may have caused.”
Social media users slammed the government of “compromising” the troops’ identities.
Joe Biden announced in April that he will be running a campaign for re-electionReutersRepublicans were quick to slam the Biden administration for the mistake, with GOP Reo, Diana Harshbarger calling it “gross incompetence”.
A small number of US special forces are in Israel advising on the ongoing hostage situation.
Hundreds of people, including Brits and Americans, are being held against their will by Hamas in Gaza.
A Pentagon spokesperson said: “We are providing planning and intelligence support to the Israelis as it pertains to hostage recovery.
“That's about the extent of what I'm able to provide right now.”