The announcement by the head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization marked the first official report on the contents of the cockpit voice and data recordings, which were sent to France for analysis in July.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have said they accidentally shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 on Jan. 8, mistaking it for a missile at a time when tensions were high between Iran and the United States.

Many of the 176 victims killed in the crash were Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

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The US military said the drill had caused two bases with American troops in the region to go on heightened alert and said Tehran's missile launches were irresponsible.

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There have been periodic confrontations in the Gulf in recent years between the Guards and the US military, which has accused the Guards' navy of sending fast-attack boats to harass US warships as they pass the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran, which opposes the presence of US and Western navies in the Gulf, holds annual naval war games in phases in the strategic waterway, the conduit for some 30% of all crude and other oil liquids traded by sea.

"The final stage of the drill called 'Great Prophet 14' with the participation of the Guards Navy and Air Force has started in the areas of land, air, sea, and space in ... the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf," Iran's state TV reported.

The Guards, in a statement quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency, said its naval and air forces would use "missile, UAV and radar units" in the drill.

In a statement, the US military's Central Command said Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates were put on a heightened alert status out of an abundance of caution because an initial assessment showed a potential threat.

"The incident lasted for a matter of minutes, and an all-clear was declared after the threat indicator had passed," the military statement said.

Satellite images published on Monday showed Iran has moved a mock-up US aircraft carrier to the Strait, suggesting it will use the fake vessel for target practice in war games there.

Commander Rebecca Rebarich, spokeswoman for the US Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, said the US military was "always watchful of this type of irresponsible and reckless behavior by Iran in the vicinity of busy international waterways."

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But she said that "this exercise has not disrupted coalition operations in the area nor had any impacts to the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters."

The Guards in April said Tehran would destroy US warships if Iran's security is threatened in the Gulf. Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to block Hormuz if Iran is not able to export oil or if its nuclear sites are attacked.

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Trump gave no explanation in a brief Twitter posting announcing the order, but the initiative follows repeated US assertions that the Islamic Republic was behind Saturday's attack on the kingdom, a close US ally.

"I have just instructed the secretary of the treasury to substantially increase sanctions on the country of Iran!," the president wrote.

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Iran, however, again denied involvement in the Sept. 14 raids, which hit the world's biggest crude processing facility and initially knocked out half of the Saudi production.

"They want to impose maximum ... pressure on Iran through slander," Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said.

"We don't want conflict in the region ... Who started the conflict?" he added, blaming Washington and its Gulf allies for the war in Yemen.

Yemen's Houthi movement, an ally of Iran battling a Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition for more than four years, has claimed responsibility and said it used drones to assault state oil company Aramco's sites.

However, the Saudi Defense Ministry said it would use a news conference to present "material evidence and Iranian weapons proving the Iranian regime's involvement in the terrorist attack."

Whether Iran or an Iran-aligned group carried out Saturday's attack, it still exposed the vulnerability of Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure and threw down a gauntlet to the United States, which wants to curb Tehran's influence in the region.

Evidence showing Iranian responsibility, if made public, could pressure Riyadh and Washington into a response, though both nations were stressing the need for caution.

Trump has said he does not want war and is coordinating with Gulf and European states.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the hit on the world's biggest crude exporter was a "real test of the global will" to confront subversion of the international order.

His envoy to London, Prince Khalid bin Bandar, told the BBC the attack was "almost certainly" Iranian-backed, however: "We're trying not to react too quickly because the last thing we need is more conflict in the region."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was to meet Prince Mohammed in Jiddah on Wednesday to discuss the crisis before heading to the United Arab Emirates.

UN officials monitoring sanctions on Iran and Yemen were also heading to Saudi Arabia to investigate.

A US official said the strikes originated in southwestern Iran. Three officials said they involved cruise missiles and drones, indicating a higher degree of complexity and sophistication than initially thought.

The officials did not provide evidence or explain what US intelligence they were using to evaluate the attack, which cut 5% of global production.

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday the 5.7 million barrels per day of output lost would be fully restored by the end of the month.

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Israel is bracing for a potential attack by the Lebanon-based Shiite terrorist group – Iran's regional proxy – after it threatened retaliation over two incidents that took place earlier this week. The first saw the IDF thwart an imminent Iranian drone attack on Israel's north from Syria; and the second, which has been attributed to Israel by the foreign media, entailed a drone attack on a Hezbollah building in Beirut, which destroyed equipment that was earmarked for Hezbollah's efforts to bolster its arsenal of precision missiles.

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GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Amir Baram and the Homefront Command's northern sector chief Col. Itzik Bar met on Thursday with the heads of the communities adjacent to Israel's borders with Lebanon and Syria and briefed them on the IDF's efforts in the sector.

"Ensuring the daily routine in the sector continues uninterrupted and doesn't contradict the fact that they [the communities] have to be ready for a state of emergency and keep in touch with our sector commanders," Baram said.

"All of the tourist attractions, parks and recreational areas in the area don't have to change anything in terms of their daily operations," he stressed. "We are preparing for any contingency and if need be, we will react to developments on the ground as they happen, which is why we must brief the heads of the local communities."

Baram further commended the heads of the local communities for "the partnership we have and their considered response, which indicates strong civilian leadership."

The Israeli Military Intelligence pegs Hezbollah's missile arsenal at about 200,000 projectiles of various ranges. Of them, the terrorist group is believed to possess several dozen precision missiles.

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Israel has not claimed responsibility for the two drones that crashed over the weekend in the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut. One of them exploded, causing some damage to Hezbollah's media center in the district, but nobody was hurt.

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"I rule out that the atmosphere is one of war, it is one of a response to an attack," Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said in a TV interview on Tuesday night. "Everything will be decided at its time."

Lebanon's Hezbollah was planning a "calculated strike" but seeks to avoid a new war with Israel, two sources allied to the Shiite Muslim group, which fought a deadly month-long war with Israel in 2006 said.

A regional security official said that the drone incident was "a strike that dealt a blow to Hezbollah's capabilities in the realm of precision-missile manufacturing".

Asked what would happen if Hezbollah escalates after responding, the official said: "I imagine that Israel would then step up its strikes and wipe out this capability altogether. The details of these sites are known. The ball would now appear to be in Hezbollah's court."

Despite signs that Israel and Hezbollah do not want a new full-scale conflict, tensions over the drones and an air raid in Syria that Israel says thwarted an Iranian attack have emerged at a sensitive time in the Middle East.

Iran and the United States are at odds over a 2015 nuclear deal. Shiite militias in Iraq, many of whom are backed by Iran, blame recent blasts at their weapons depots on the United States and Israel.

In a speech on Sunday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah described the drone crashes as the first Israeli attack in Lebanon since the 2006 war.

Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Nasrallah should "calm down," also issuing warnings to Lebanon and Qassem Soleimani, commander of the overseas arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Precise details about where the drones were fired from have yet to emerge. In response to questions about the origin or target of the drones, Qassem did not give details in the interview with Russia's RT Arabic channel.

He added that Hezbollah, which says the drones were rigged with explosives, saw it as an attack that it must respond to so that Israel does not set its own terms.

"We want the strike to be a surprise ... and so there is no interest in diving into the details," he said. "The coming days will reveal this."

In his speeches over the past year, Nasrallah has often said that an all-out war with Israel was unlikely.

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These incidents, along with an air raid in Syria that Israel says thwarted an imminent Iranian drone attack, have raised tensions at a particularly fraught time.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking to project strength three weeks before the national elections, while Iran has taken a series of provocative actions in recent months that are aimed at pressuring European nations to provide relief from crippling US sanctions.

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, vowed to retaliate after a drone crashed on the terrorist group's Beirut media office and another exploded midair early on Sunday. Israeli forces along the border with Lebanon are on high alert, raising fears of a repeat of the 2006 war. Netanyahu has warned Nasrallah to "relax," saying that Israel "knows how to defend itself and how to pay back its enemies."

The Israeli leader has also addressed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's elite Quds Force and the architect of its regional entrenchment, telling him to "be careful with your words and be even more careful with your actions." Israel said that Soleimani masterminded the alleged drone attack. Another commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, dismissed the Israeli allegations as a "lie."

Israel has also blamed Iran for recent rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, and on Monday struck a Palestinian base in Lebanon near the Syrian border.

Israel views Iran as its greatest threat and has hailed US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal and re-impose sanctions. But Netanyahu may fear that the US is moderating that approach after Trump said there's a "really good chance" he could meet with Iran's president.

The two close allies already appear to be at odds over recent strikes on Iranian-linked militias in Iraq. In a rare move, US officials acknowledged that Israel was behind at least one of the strikes, and the Pentagon pointedly distanced itself from the Iraq strikes, saying that US forces were not involved.

None of the parties is believed to be seeking war, but the potential for miscalculation could lead to a regional conflagration.

Israel says it is responding to increasingly aggressive moves by Iran and seeking to roll back its regional entrenchment. As Netanyahu fights for an unprecedented fifth term in the Sept. 17 elections, he is eager to display his security credentials and discuss what many Israelis see as his signature achievement – countering Iran and its nuclear program.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Iranian-backed forces in Syria since the civil war began in 2011. In recent months it has gone increasingly public with the campaign, immediately confirming the kinds of strikes it used to rarely acknowledge.

Even Netanyahu's political opponents support the operations, which are aimed at preventing Iran from establishing a permanent military presence on the Syrian frontier. But they have questioned his motives in making them public, with some accusing him of grandstanding, in what they suggest is an attempt to win over voters ahead of the elections.

"There is definitely a more aggressive line now, even if Israel isn't saying so officially," said Amos Harel, an Israeli military analyst. "Part of it has to do with the increased Iranian efforts and part of it has to do with all the other considerations."

Netanyahu's opponents have hammered him for refusing to strike harder at Hamas after recent rocket fire from Gaza. Netanyahu also faces a tide of corruption allegations that have raised the stakes ahead of the vote. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Despite his tough rhetoric, Netanyahu has traditionally been risk-averse in military matters. But he also views countering Iran as his primary mission and may hope to cement his legacy while he has a staunch supporter in the White House.

Meanwhile, Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal and impose maximal sanctions on Iran has devastated its economy and left it desperate for relief.

Iran has begun openly breaching limits set by the deal, saying that it cannot abide by the agreement unless European signatories offer it a respite from sanctions. In recent weeks, Iran shot down a US military surveillance drone and has been blamed for mine attacks on six oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, something it denies. Iran has also seized a British-flagged oil tanker.

At the same time, Tehran has launched a fresh diplomatic offensive, with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif making a surprise appearance at the G-7 summit in France as part of a worldwide tour ahead of next month's UN General Assembly.

Experts say that Iran seeks sanctions relief and not war, but are alarmed by the potential for miscalculation, either by Tehran or its foes. Iran has spent decades building up powerful allies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, which it could call upon in a potential war with Israel or the United States.

Hezbollah is likely to respond to the drone attack in order to project strength and establish deterrence, but the nature and scope of its retaliation will depend largely on domestic considerations.

Nasrallah's pledge to shoot down any Israeli aircraft that enter Lebanese airspace is in keeping with the bravado he regularly displays in public addresses, but he will have to perhaps weigh his response with the risk of igniting another devastating war.

Lebanon is already mired in an economic crisis that many blame on the government, which is dominated by Hezbollah and its allies. Nasrallah insists that such considerations won't dictate his response, but officials close to Hezbollah's leadership say it is mindful of being perceived as dragging the country into a ruinous war with Israel that would hasten its economic collapse.

Another consideration is the recent US-mediated efforts to open indirect talks between Lebanon and Israel aimed at demarcating the maritime border, which Lebanon hopes will allow it to begin offshore oil and gas exploration later this year.

Imad Marmal, a journalist close to Hezbollah, wrote on Tuesday that the group's response will be "well studied and proportionate in a way that conveys the categorical message that changing the rules of engagement is prohibited, but without leading to the outbreak of an all-out war."

That may be easier said than done. The monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 was sparked by a cross-border raid in which Hezbollah killed and captured Israeli soldiers. Nasrallah later said he would have never ordered the operation if he had known it would lead to a war of that magnitude.

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The heads of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip received a similar warning, the report said.  

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The warning reportedly followed a statement by a Hamas official to Gaza media, saying that "if war breaks out between Israel and Hezbollah, we will attack on the Gaza border."

Officials in Egypt are furious over the recent rocket fire from Gaza on Israel, which continuously impedes their attempt to broker a ceasefire, a source said.

A Hamas delegation visiting Cairo also received what was said to be a strongly-worded message in which Egypt stated that it would no longer attempt to serve as a mediator between Gaza's rulers and Israel if Hamas continues the barrage of rocket fire on the Jewish state.

According to the Saudi media outlet Al-Arabiya, Hamas denied involvement in the recent rocket attacks, and blamed the other terrorist organizations in the coastal enclave for the escalation, saying that they would like to see hostilities against Israel continue. 

According to Arab media reports, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is said to be pressuring Hamas to agree to a ceasefire with Israel in exchange for measures designed to alleviate the dire economic situation in Gaza.

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One of the drones that crashed into the building in a Hezbollah stronghold neighborhood of Dahiya struck crates containing a high-grade propellant mix for precision-guided missiles and destroyed a remote control machine for rocket guidance, according to the report. 

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The IDF has kept mum on the issue, and it remains unclear whether the two drones, said to be on an intelligence-gathering mission, were downed, or whether the first drone malfunctioned and the second was sent to destroy it.

The Lebanese Shiite group said on Tuesday that the two drones were both armed with 5.5 kilograms (12 pounds) of C4 explosives.

Military drones are often equipped with self-destruct mechanisms to prevent others from obtaining information in case of capture.

Hezbollah has been engaged in a hectic effort in recent years to improve its missile precision capabilities in an attempt to allow for direct hits on "quality targets" – otherwise known as strategic infrastructure – in Israel. 

Israeli Military Intelligence pegs the terrorist group's considerable arsenal at over 120,000 projectiles, but only a few dozen carry precision capabilities. 

Iran has, in the past, tried to smuggle precision missiles into Lebanon through Syria, but according to foreign media reports, Israel has managed to thwart most of these attempts via a series of strikes, mainly carried out in Syria. 

As a result, Iran and Hezbollah sought to convert existing rocket-production facilities in Lebanon into precision-missile production lines – a scheme that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exposed during his speech before the United Nations General Assembly last September when he shared with world leaders information and images of three rocket conversion sites.

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"Time is drawing short to continue this activity of restricting Iran's capacity to foment its terror regime," he said at a UN Security Council meeting about the latest in the Middle East, which also included mention of the situations in Yemen and Libya and the threat from Islamic State. "The international community will have plenty of time to see how long it has until Iran is unshackled to create new turmoil and figure out what it must do to prevent this from happening."

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Pompeo noted that the US State Department's website has a "Countdown to Terror" clock leading up to the removal of the restrictions in accordance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the United States withdrew from, reimposing sanctions, in addition to enacting new financial penalties against Tehran.

Additionally, the US top diplomat warned against helping the vessel, which is carrying 2 million barrels of oil.

"We have made clear that anyone who touches it, anyone who supports it, anyone who allows a ship to dock is at risk of receiving sanctions from the United States," he told reporters at the United Nations, where he addressed the UN Security Council about the latest in the Middle East.

"If that ship again heads to Syria, we will take every action we can consistent with those sanctions to prevent that," said Pompeo, adding that revenues from the oil sold from the tanker would benefit Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "We want to deny them the resources to continue their horrific terror campaign."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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In theory, the two sectors are unrelated. The terrorist who carried out the car-ramming attack in Gush Etzion on Friday acted alone and without direction from any terrorist organization. It's possible that he was inspired by the terrorists who a week earlier murdered IDF soldier Dvir Sorek in the same area, and took the opportunity to run over the young hitchhikers standing on the side of the road.

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Nevertheless, the ramming attack (like the one before it) can still be traced back to Hamas. The terrorist organization was quick to hail the attack, stating it was the result of the struggle for the Temple Mount. These two words – Temple Mount – are a proven recipe for incitement, certainly during the Muslim week of Eid al-Adha, which traditionally sparks regional tensions anyway.

Thus far these terrorist attacks haven't roused the Palestinian public from its general state of apathy. Judea and Samaria haven't seen riots or a rise in violent activities (stone-throwing, fire bombings), but Israel cannot ignore the rise in serious terrorist attacks, and especially their contagious effect. For now, decision-makers are still refraining from bolstering forces stationed in Judea and Samaria, but increased vigilance is indeed required to prevent additional attacks.

In Gaza, too, the general public remains largely disengaged from recent events. The border demonstration on Friday was "normal," without an unusual number of participants, but the rocket fire on Friday and Saturday is already a different story. While Friday's rocket (which was intercepted) was dismissed within the defense establishment as "yet another act by recalcitrant and disillusioned jihadists" – similar to the infiltration attempts that were foiled in recent weeks – Saturday's rocket barrage cannot merely be attributed to the neighborhood nut job: There was a guiding hand behind it, or at the very least a blind eye was intentionally turned.

For numerous reasons, Israel doesn't want another war in Gaza. Hamas understands this, and similar to election-day eve in April, it wants to exploit the situation. It is simultaneously stirring the pot in Judea and Samaria – calling on the masses to take to the streets and carry out attacks, while funding and directing its cells to take immediate action – while continuing to play its familiar game of raising and lowering the flames in Gaza.

Israel will not restrain itself from responding to the rocket attack on Sderot, just as it didn't restrain itself on Friday. However, the game it now has to play is more complex than simple tit-for-tat use of force. If it responds too softly, Hamas will perceive weakness and continue applying pressure in order to win concessions (from more money to easing restrictions at the border crossings, and other matters that can help it improve Gaza's dire economic and humanitarian situation). If Israel responds too harshly, it could become enmeshed in another undesired military campaign, which considering the recent uptick in tensions could also spark a serious escalation in Judea and Samaria.

Regardless, the government and IDF's first and foremost obligation is to the residents of the south. A reality of intermittent rocket attacks on Gaza-adjacent communities is intolerable; it needs to be extinguished immediately, even at the cost of an escalation – with all its inherent risks. If Israel is indeed forced to fight another war in Gaza, better for it to happen while schoolchildren are on summer vacation and residents can be easily relocated to other parts of the country; and when operational conditions are relatively convenient from the army's perspective (just two weeks ago, the Gaza Division concluded a large exercise and declared it was more ready than ever for a fight).

It's desirable, of course, for Israel to calm the situation in the south before it boils over into a broad conflagration – as it has done several times in the past 18 months. To this end, Israel can also grant additional leeway to Egyptian mediators and United Nations envoys. But all this must result in one clear stipulation: Hamas won't be able to play with fire all by itself anymore. If it continues to play with fire (in Judea and Samaria, Gaza, or both) it will be engulfed by a flame that is far worse.

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