U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return this week to the Middle East as the U.S. hopes to find a way to extend a cease-fire in Gaza and get more hostages released, the State Department said Monday. It will be his third trip to the region since Israel's war with Hamas began last month.

Blinken will travel to Israel and the West Bank after attending Ukraine-focused meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels and Skopje, North Macedonia, where foreign ministers from NATO and the Organization for Peace and Security in Europe are gathering.

The five armed assailants captured by U.S. forces after seizing a commercial ship near Yemen over the weekend were likely Somali and not Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, the Pentagon said.

Recent attacks on commercial vessels have been conducted by Houthis, seen as part of a rise in violence in the region due to the Israel-Hamas war.

A truce between Israel and Hamas entered its fifth day on Tuesday, with the militant group promising to release more civilian hostages to delay the expected resumption of the war and Israel under growing pressure to spare Palestinian civilians when the fighting resumes.

The sides agreed to extend their truce through Wednesday, with another two planned exchanges of militant-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But Israel has repeatedly vowed to resume the war with "full force" to destroy Hamas once it's clear that no more hostages will be freed under the current agreement's terms.

The deal seemed on the verge of unraveling. Hamas had accused Israel of failing to keep its side of the bargain and Israel was threatening to resume its lethal onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

That was the point at which a Qatari jet landed at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport on Saturday. Negotiators aboard set to work, seeking to save the cease-fire deal between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers before it fell apart and scuttled weeks of high-stakes diplomatic wrangling.

Terry Venables, a charismatic and tactically innovative English soccer coach who led his national team to the European Championship semifinals in 1996 after winning trophies at club level with Barcelona and Tottenham, has died. He was 80.

Lautaro Martínez scored again but Inter Milan had to be content with a share of the spoils as the Serie A leader drew 1-1 at second-place Juventus on Sunday.

Martínez's 13th league goal of the season canceled out Dušan Vlahović's opener in the Derby d'Italia.

Rodrygo made the most of his last-minute addition to the Real Madrid lineup, scoring two beautiful goals and setting up another by Jude Bellingham in a 3-0 win against Cadiz that put Madrid at the top of the Spanish league on Sunday.

Rodrygo swiftly went past the Cadiz defenders before hitting the top corner with goals in the 14th and 64th minutes, and then provided the assist in Bellingham's 74th-minute goal.

Germany says it will provide financial support for the reconstruction of communities destroyed during Hamas' October 7 attack in southern Israel.

During a visit on Monday to Kibbutz Beeri, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his country would provide 7 million euros ($7.6 million) for the kibbutz in 2024. The money is for reconstruction of a cultural center and a meeting center for senior citizens, German news agency dpa reported.

Elon Musk, who's been under fire over accusations of antisemitism flourishing on his social media platform X, paid a visit Monday to Israel, where he toured a kibbutz that was attacked last month by Hamas militants and was set to meet with top leaders.

The billionaire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the Kfar Azza kibbutz, which was stormed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. Musk, wearing a protective vest and escorted by a phalanx of security personnel, used his phone to take photos or videos of the devastation, according to video released by Netanyahu's office.

As Congress returns to session this week, lawmakers will be trying to forge an agreement on sending a new round of wartime assistance to Ukraine. But to succeed, they will have to find agreement on an issue that has confounded them for decades.

Republicans in both chambers of Congress have made clear that they will not support additional aid for Ukraine unless it is paired with border security measures to help manage the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their demand has injected one of the most contentious issues in American politics into a foreign policy debate that was already difficult.