The photo posted on Instagram by the White House, in which U.S. President Joe Biden meets with U.S. troops in Israel without obscuring their identities, has drawn much criticism for putting the servicemen in danger.

Though the White House account deleted the post one hour after it was published, users of X, formerly known as Twitter, criticized the Biden administration of "compromising" the U.S. troops identities while they were defending U.S. interests in Israel.

The original photo is said to show the faces of four men, all wearing American flag patches and quickly identified as members of the elite Combat Applications Group, also known as the Delta Force and Task Force Green.

The White House admits in a statement that they accidentally doxxed U.S. Special Forces by posting an uncensored photo of them with Biden in Israel, adding that they immediately deleted the photo as soon as it got much attention and they regretted the error and any issues this may have caused.

Though the photo was deleted, it had been viewed by "hundreds of thousands" of people, intelligence analyst Sam Shoemate was quoted by the Russian news agency RT as saying.

"This is a massive failure" for the Biden administration, Shoemate said on X.

U.S. military veteran and author Sean Parnell, Fox News contributor Sara Carter and former White House adviser Mercedes Schlapp are among the many people reacting to the revelation.

"Holy God. Biden doxxed Delta. This without question puts a target on them and their families," Parnell was quoted by Fox News as saying.

Carter, whose husband is a retired operator, said this is totally "unacceptable." "These operators are required to maintain a level of discretion that this administration has completely disregarded."

"Is the White House really this stupid or are they just trying to get people targeted?" she asked.

As for Schlapp, the unmasking of the special forces shows that "This is the most INCOMPETENT White House. The Biden administration is putting in military danger."

(With input from agencies)