Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 206?

Musa Abu Marzouk, Hamas's Deputy Head of the Political Bureau, stated that if Hamas leaders are compelled to depart Qatar, they will relocate to Jordan, Israeli media, citing Iranian media, reported on Monday.

Marzouk's remarks follow reports suggesting Qatar's potential expulsion of Hamas leaders. 

An Israeli negotiator disclosed that a delegation from Mossad, IDF, and Shin Bet plans to depart for Cairo tomorrow, pending Hamas' response to the hostage deal, Kan News reported on Monday.

A Hamas delegation is currently in Cairo, holding mediation talks with Egyptian officials.

This is a developing story.

The US has seen measurable progress in the humanitarian situation in Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, but he cautioned that it still wasn't sufficient and vowed to press Israeli officials later this week to do more.

Blinken’s remarks during a Middle East trip to check in on humanitarian aid to Gaza come about a month after Biden issued a stark warning to Netanyahu, saying Washington’s policy could shift if Israel fails to take steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.

Speaking at the opening of a meeting with the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, Blinken cited the opening of new border crossings and higher amount of humanitarian aid as evidence of progress.

Several European member states are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood by the end of May, the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday at the sidelines of a World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh.

The US military's cost estimate to build a pier off Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid has risen to $320 million US dollars, a US defense official and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The figure, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the massive scale of a construction effort that the Pentagon has said involves about 1,000 US service members, mostly from the Army and Navy.

Still, the cost has roughly doubled from initial estimates earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

"The cost has not just risen. It has exploded," Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters, when asked about the costs.

"This dangerous effort with marginal benefit will now cost the American taxpayers at least $320 million [US dollars] to operate the pier for only 90 days."

Hostile aircraft intrusion sirens sounded in northern Israel on Monday afternoon.

The IDF later announced that that the alerts were a false alarm.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia Monday morning for the first part of a wider Middle East tour. 

The United States has seen "measurable progress" in the humanitarian situation in Gaza over the past few weeks,  Blinken said upon his arrival, but urged Israel to do more.

Speaking in Riyadh at the opening of a US-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting, Blinken said the most effective way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was to achieve a ceasefire. He also said Washington continued efforts to prevent the Gaza war from expanding.

This trip is aimed at discussing with Arab partners post-war Gaza and to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take concrete and tangible steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

In Riyadh, Blinken is expected to meet with senior Saudi leaders and hold a wider meeting with counterparts from five Arab states – Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan – to further the discussions on what governance of the Gaza Strip would look like after the war, according to a senior State Department official.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gestures while he deboards an airplane as he visits Saudi Arabia in the latest Gaza diplomacy push, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia April 29, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)

Blinken is also expected to bring together Arab countries with the European states and discuss how Europe can help the rebuilding effort of the tiny enclave, which has been reduced to a wasteland in the six-month long Israeli bombardment, following Hamas's brutal terror attack on Israel and its kidnapping of over 200 hostages to Gaza.

Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades took responsibility for a barrage of over 20 rockets that were launched from Lebanon towards the Upper Galilee in Israel's north, according to the group's Telegram channel on Monday.

The group claimed that they targeted an Israeli military position with a salvo of missiles from southern Lebanon.

Israeli media reported that around 13 of the launched rockets were intercepted by air defense systems and that the rest fell into open areas.

No injuries or damage to property have been reported. at this time.

This attack came shortly after the IDF announced that it conducted multiple overnight strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

Israel Air Force fighter jets struck Hezbollah terror targets in an overnight operation in southern Lebanon, the IDF announced on Monday.

Among the targets struck were operational infrastructure in the area or Jabal Blat, as well as a number of Hezbollah military structures in the area of Marwahin. 

 The US military said on Sunday it had engaged five unmanned drones over the Red Sea that "presented an imminent threat to US, coalition, and merchant vessels in the region."

US Central Command did not say in the statement if the drones were destroyed.