Evening Update:

Iranian Naval Ships Enter Mediterranean Via Suez

ISMAILIA - Two Iranian naval ships have sailed through Egypt's Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, in a move likely to be keenly watched by Israel.

"Two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal (on Thursday) following permission from the Egyptian armed forces," a source in the canal authority said on Friday.

The destroyer and a supply ship could be on their way to the Syrian coast, the source added. Iran and Syria agreed to cooperate on naval training a year ago, and Tehran has no naval agreement with any other country in the region.

Two Iranian warships sailed along the strategic waterway on February 17 last year, in a move that Israel called a "provocation".

IDF On Alert Following Attacks From Gaza

Rocket and missile fire from Gaza put the IDF on high alert on Friday evening, Channel 10 News reported.

Earlier on Friday evening, terrorists from Gaza fired two rockets towards Israeli territory, one at the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council and the other at the Eshkol Regional Council.

A spokesperson for IDF’s Southern Command told Channel 10 that following the attacks, IDF forces have been instructed to maintain maximum vigilance.

Report: U.S. Believes Iran Attack Inevitable

Officials in key parts of the Obama administration are increasingly convinced that sanctions will not deter Tehran from pursuing its nuclear program and believe that the U.S. will be left with no option but to launch an attack on Iran or watch Israel do so, the British Guardian reported on Friday.

The official added, “Sanctions are all we've got to throw at the problem. If they fail then it's hard to see how we don't move to the 'in extremis' option.”

The Guardian said that if Obama concludes that there is no choice but to attack Iran, he is unlikely to order such an attack before the presidential election in November unless there is an urgent reason to do so. The question which remains, the report noted, is whether the Israelis will hold back that long.

Kahl said part of Washington's calculation is to judge whether Israel is seriously contemplating attacking Iran, or is using the threat to pressure the U.S. and Europe into confronting Tehran.

“It's not that the Israelis believe the Iranians are on the brink of a bomb,” he said. “It's that the Israelis may fear that the Iranian program is on the brink of becoming out of reach of an Israeli military strike, which means it creates a 'now-or-never' moment.”