The deadly attack by Hezbollah against an army base deep inside Israeli territory presents a major headache for Israel as it continues to struggle to defuse the threat from the Iran-backed militant group, despite launching a major bombardment campaign and a ground operation against it.

Launched from southern Lebanon, a drone was able to penetrate Israeli air defenses undetected and hit the Golani Brigade’s base some 40 miles into Israel from the border. It struck on Sunday just after 7pm – at dinner time – and while the military has not released any details about the impact site, photos from the scene make it clear the drone hit the base’s dining hall.

Both the timing and the location of the strike suggest that Hezbollah had gathered enough intelligence and possesses the capabilities to maximize the number of casualties. The Golani Brigade is regarded as an elite Israeli infantry unit and has been deployed to southern Lebanon as part of Israel’s ground operation there.

Four soldiers were killed, and more than 60 others were injured, eight of them seriously, bringing the total number of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers killed since the start of the ground operation two weeks ago to at least 18.

Sunday’s assault is also the single bloodiest attack on IDF troops inside Israel since the beginning of the war last October.

Daniel Sobelman, an international security expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said that it shows Hezbollah is still able to strike.

Israel’s air defense systems are impressive, intercepting and destroying most projectiles fired towards the country. But they have been designed and developed primarily to counter rockets and missiles, not drones that can be launched from anywhere, fly low and slow, and change directions quickly.

Iran and its allies are seeking to overwhelm Israel’s defense systems, Mizrahi said, adding drones to the equation after identifying them as “a weakness” for Israel.

“Every time we find a solution for something, they find another way to attack,” she said.

Residents in Israel are well trained when it comes to evading dangers from above. Most people head to the shelters – omnipresent in much of the country – or duck down in a ditch whenever they hear the sirens indicating an imminent aerial threat.

But the drone sent by Hezbollah at the weekend managed to slip through without triggering Israel’s alert systems. The soldiers in the dining hall were attacked without any warning.

And it was not the first time this has happened.

In June, Hezbollah released a nine-minute video filmed by a drone showing civilian and military locations in and around one of Israel’s largest cities, Haifa. That UAV also appeared to have gone undetected by the IDF.

In response to the video, IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi said at the time that the Israeli military was “preparing and coming up with solutions to deal with these and other capabilities.”

Then in July, a drone launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen killed one man and injured at least 10 others in Tel Aviv. No sirens were activated during that attack. The IDF said two drones were fired and that while one was intercepted, the other one was not – due to what it said was a human error.

The tactic of sending two drones also appears to have been replicated by Hezbollah last week.

The IDF said two drones were launched from Lebanon on Friday, adding that it had intercepted one of them, but not disclosing what happened to the other one. A nursing home in the coastal city of Herzliya, central Israel, was damaged in the attack, but no casualties were reported.

It is very likely that the same strategy was deployed on Sunday. Shortly before the first reports of the attack against the Golani Brigade base, the IDF said it had intercepted an UAV launched from Lebanon in the northern naval area of Israel. That suggests the drone that hit the base was a second aircraft fired either simultaneously or shortly before or after the first one. The IDF did not comment on the number of drones that were launched on Sunday.

Hezbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets toward the northern Israeli towns of Nahariya and Acre to engage Israel’s air defense systems, while simultaneously launching the drones.

Difficult fight

Hezbollah continues to be able to fire at Israel despite the IDF launching an intense aerial bombardment inside Lebanon as well as a limited ground operation targeting the group.

When the IDF launched its ground operation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, it insisted that any action across the border would be “limited” in both geographical scope and duration and aimed at dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in the border areas.

Some 60,000 people have been evacuated from northern Israel since Hezbollah began firing barrages of rockets at Israel on October 8 last year in support of Hamas in Gaza, which had launched deadly attacks against Israel a day earlier.

But the reality on the ground indicates Israel might be preparing for the possibility of a much bigger war. It has deployed units from four divisions to southern Lebanon and ordered the residents of a quarter of Lebanon’s territory to evacuate. More than 1.2 million people are now displaced, according to the United Nations.

The IDF doesn’t disclose its troop numbers, but each division is thought to consist of some 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers.

Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that last time Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, it sent around 30,000 troops across the border.

That war ended in stalemate after 34 days, after some 1,100 Lebanese and about 170 Israelis, including 120 soldiers, were killed.

CSIS said that a new operation on the ground could require a bigger force than the one Israel deployed in 2006 against Hezbollah. Yet even that may not be enough.

He said that in guerrilla wars, what often matters the most is the weaker actor’s ability to keep going, fight and inflict losses on the other side.

With the IDF death toll from its war on Hezbollah rising, it is clear the militant group is determined to keep going – despite the momentous blows it has suffered.

Two giant pandas are on their way from China to Washington’s National Zoo, kicking off a much-awaited return of the beloved bears to the American capital.

Bao Li and Qing Bao, both three years old, left the giant panda research base in Dujiangyan, a city near the bears’ native habitat in the mountains of southwest China, on Monday night local time. They will board a specially charted FedEx Boeing 777 cargo jet dubbed the “Panda Express” and take off for Washington in a few hours.

“We have prepared corn buns, bamboo shoots, carrots, water, and medicine to ensure the pandas’ needs are met during the flight,” the China Wildlife Conservation Association said in a statement announcing the pair’s departure.

The black and white bears are the first pair China has sent to Washington in 24 years. The previous pair returned to China with their cub last November, triggering a flood of tearful goodbyes at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.

Over the past 11 months, the zoo’s panda exhibit, which used to draw millions of visitors, has been left empty. Now, having just completed a million-dollar revamp, it’s counting down the hours to welcome the new tenants.

China’s renewed panda diplomacy with the US is a rare bright spot in the fraught relations between the world’s two superpower rivals – which have been marred by tensions over trade, technology, geopolitics and more.

The male, Bao Li, appeared calm and composed as he slowly paced around the crate. Qing Bao, a petite female, was more restless. She stood up and stuck her snout and paws out through the bars as her crate was forklifted onto the truck.

Staff members waved photos of the two bears and banners as the trucks drove by, chanting slogans wishing them a safe journey.

A sendoff ceremony was held earlier on Monday at a hotel near the base, joined by a delegation from the Washington zoo who came to the Chinese province of Sichuan to help with the transition.

Speaking at the ceremony, the zoo’s director, Brandie Smith, hailed half a century of collaboration between the Smithsonian and its Chinese partners on panda conservation, since the first pair arrived from China in 1972.

“These beloved black and white bears are icons in Washington DC, and adored around the world,” Smith said. “Our team and legions of fans look forward to welcoming Bao Li and Qing Bao to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.”

The two pandas are loaned to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo for 10 years, with an annual fee of $1 million to support conservation efforts back in China.

While born in Sichuan, Bao Li has deep familial roots in Washington. His mother, Bao Bao, was born a celebrity at the National Zoo in 2013 and returned to China four years later. His grandparents, Meixiang and Tian Tian, lived at the zoo for 23 years until their lease ended last year.

“He reminds me a lot of his grandfather, Tian Tian,” said Mariel Lally, a panda keeper from the National Zoo who is accompanying Bao Li and Qing Bao on the flight to Washington.

‘A very comfortable ride’

Much preparation has been made for the two pandas’ journey across the Pacific Ocean.

Lally spent the past 10 days at the Dujiangyan base getting to know the two pandas and working with their Chinese keepers for the transfer. Two more colleagues – a vet and another keeper – arrived from Washington last week to join the training.

Bao Li and Qing Bao were taken off public display and placed in quarantine on September 13 – a day after Qing Bao turned three years old. (Bao Li had his birthday five weeks earlier.) They were kept in separate enclosures in a fenced-off quarantine zone lined with bamboo trees, tucked in a quiet staff-only area away from the crowds of tourists.

Ren Zhijun, a Chinese keeper who has been caring for the two bears in quarantine, said he was struck by the pair’s completely different personalities.

Bao Li is energetic and has a great appetite – living up to his name, which means “precious vigor.” The female, Qing Bao, which means “green treasure,” is “lazy and loves to sleep,” Ren said. “When she wants to have some exercises, she would climb a tree.”

Ren also noticed a big difference in their appetite: Bao Li, who loves bamboo shoots, can eat twice as much bamboo as Qing Bao, who counts carrots and apples as her favorite food.

Bao Li and Qing Bao spent their last few days in Dujiangyan getting trained for their first long-haul flight. Every morning, the pair would walk into their shipping crates voluntarily as soon as the door opened – with a little help of food.

“They go in there, they get their favorite treats, and it’s actually difficult to get them out of it,” Lally said. “They’re really comfortable in there, and the crates are humongous. They could lay down in either direction, stand up, do a cartwheel – you name it, there’s so much space.”

The crates are built in a way that allows the keepers to pass bamboo, bamboo shoots, fruits and fresh water to the bears on the flight.

“[They] will have a very comfortable ride even though it’s gonna be a long ride,” Lally said.

‘A new chapter’

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo was the first in the US to exhibit the rare, cuddly animals as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” – a strategic tool to win partners, build goodwill and showcase soft power.

It all began with US President Richard Nixon’s ice-breaking trip to Communist China during the Cold War. During that historic visit in 1972, first lady Pat Nixon was reportedly charmed by the pandas at the Beijing Zoo.

Days later, when seated next to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai at a banquet in Beijing, Pat Nixon noticed a box of cigarettes on the table decorated with pandas. “Aren’t they cute? I love them,” she told his host. “I’ll give you some,” he replied.

Weeks later, a pair of pandas, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, arrived at the National Zoo in Washington. “I think pandamonium is going to break out right here at the zoo,” Pat Nixon quipped at the welcome ceremony.

She was right. On their first day of public display, the two pandas drew a reported 20,000 visitors. Since then, giant pandas have become the zoo’s star attraction, drawing millions of visitors.

The zoo’s 24-hour Giant Panda Cam has garnered more than 100 million page views since its launch in 2000. It went offline last November, when Mei Xiang, Tiantian and their youngest cub Xiao Qi Ji left for China.

For many DC residents, their departure signaled the end of an era: for the first time in 23 years, the giant panda exhibit at the National Zoo had become empty.

It also stoked fears that the US might soon be without pandas. San Diego and Memphis had already returned their bears to China in recent years, and the only four remaining in Atlanta are scheduled to depart this year.

While the flurry of departures was somewhat expected as the zoos’ panda leases expired, it came at a fraught moment in relations between the US and China. Some observers wondered whether Beijing was halting “panda diplomacy” with America and instead doling out new panda loans to Europe and the Middle East.

Then, in a visit aimed at stabilizing rocky ties, Chinese leader Xi Jinping signaled in San Francisco in last November that China would be sending new panadas to the US, calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”

A new round of “panda diplomacy” soon resumed. In June, a pair of pandas arrived at the San Diego Zoo, weeks after the National Zoo announced it would be getting two new bears by the end of the year.

Smith, the National Zoo’s director, called the upcoming arrival of Bao Li and Qing Bao a “historic moment” opening the next chapter of the zoo’s giant panda conservation program.

“Giant pandas truly represent how great conservation outcomes can be achieved through great partnerships and with public support,” she said.

But not everyone in China is happy about these new loans. A fringe but vocal group of online influencers have vehemently protested sending China’s “national treasures” to the US and other countries.

Some voiced concerns about their wellbeing, alleging without evidence that American zoos have mistreated pandas. Such claims, often fueled by nationalistic, anti-US sentiment, gained traction on Chinese social media in recent years following the controversy over the health of Ya Ya, a panda formerly at the Memphis Zoo.

When Bao Li and Qing Bao were taken into quarantine in September, the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda issued a statement rebuffing rumor about the mistreatment of pandas at the Washington zoo.

“The international cooperation on giant pandas holds great significance,” the center said, adding that it had clarified such rumors multiple times. “We fully understand everyone’s concern for the two giant pandas, but please do not believe internet rumors.”

Hong Kong authorities are carrying out tests to find out what killed eight monkeys, which were found dead in the city’s oldest zoo on Sunday, the government said on Monday.

The animals, a De Brazza’s monkey, one common squirrel monkey, three cotton-top tamarins and three white-faced sakis, were found dead at the city’s Zoological and Botanical Gardens (HKZBG) on Sunday, Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department said in a statement.

While awaiting test results, the mammals section of the zoo will be shut from Monday for disinfection and cleaning.

“We will also closely monitor the health conditions of other animals. During this period, other facilities of the HKZBG will remain open,” the statement said.

The HKZBG is the oldest park in the territory. Built in 1860, it houses around 158 birds, 93 mammals and 21 reptiles in about 40 enclosures.

North Korea is sending its citizens to help Russia’s military fight Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said, increasing concerns about the alliance between Moscow and the secretive state.

In his daily video message on Sunday, the Ukrainian president said: “We see an increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea. It is no longer just about transferring weapons. It is actually about transferring people from North Korea to the occupying military forces.”

Zelensky’s allegation comes amid an increasingly friendly relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea in June – the first visit of its kind for more than two decades – and Western observers have wondered how heavily North Korea has assisted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Obviously, in such circumstances, our relations with our partners need to be developed. The frontline needs more support,” Zelensky added, reiterating his plea for Western nations to allow Kyiv to use long-range missiles in Russian territory.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday dismissed allegations that North Korean personnel had been sent to help Russia as “another hoax.”

But South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said last week it is monitoring developments and believes the claim could be accurate.

Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun said it is “highly likely that the reported casualties of North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraine are true, given various circumstances,” speaking at the annual parliamentary audit of the defense sector on Tuesday.

“We believe that the possibility of further deployment of regular troops is very high, as Russia and North Korea have entered a mutual agreement that is almost equivalent to a military alliance. We will also be well-prepared for this possibility,” he added.

Multiple governments have accused Pyongyang of supplying arms to Moscow for its grinding war in Ukraine, a charge both countries have denied, despite significant evidence of such transfers.

The two nations, both pariahs in the West, have forged increasingly warm ties since Russia’s invasion.

During Putin’s visit to the North Korean capital in June, the two countries pledged to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked, part of a landmark defense pact agreed by the autocratic nations.

Putin said during that trip that the two countries were ramping up ties to a “new level.”

In remarks ahead of talks between the two, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un voiced his “full support and solidarity with the struggles of the Russian government, military and the people,” pointing specifically to Moscow’s war in Ukraine “to protect its own sovereignty, safety and territorial stability.”

Canada announced the expulsion of six Indian diplomats Monday, including the high commissioner, after the police accused agents of the Indian government of being linked to homicides, harassment and other “acts of violence” against Sikh separatists in the country.

“Global Affairs Canada today announced that six Indian diplomats and consular officials had received a notice of expulsion from Canada in relation to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the government of India,” read a statement shared by the department, which is headed by Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly.

The extraordinary step has sharply escalated diplomatic tensions between the countries, with India swiftly expelling six Canadian diplomats in response, including the acting High Commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler, according to a statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

The Indian government has called the accusations “preposterous” and said it was withdrawing the officials expelled by the Canadian government. “There is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains,” the statement added Monday. “The aspersions cast on (High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma) are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt.”

Joly said in a statement that the decision to expel the diplomats “was made with great consideration and only after (Canadian police) gathered ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case,” referring to the assassination on Canadian soil last June of prominent Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Earlier on Monday, the Royal Canada Mounted Police (RCMP) took the unusual step of publicly disclosing details of multiple investigations into the involvement of Indian government agents alleged to have taken part in “serious criminal activity” in Canada.

The decision to publicly disclose the investigations was taken “due to the significant threat to public safety” and after attempts to address the issue together with the Indian government had not yielded satisfactory results, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme told reporters.

Duheme said that since September last year, there had been “well over a dozen credible and imminent threats” to the lives of members of the South Asian community, and specifically the “pro-Khalistan movement,” referring to a separatist movement among supporters of Sikh independence.

“Despite law enforcement action, the harm has continued, posing a serious threat to our public safety,” Duheme said.

He added that the RCMP had found evidence of violent extremism impacting both Canada and India; links tying agents of the government of India to homicides and “violent acts” in Canada; organized crime targeting Canada’s South Asian community; and interference in democratic processes.

“Investigations have revealed that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities, such as collecting information for the government of India, either directly or through their proxies; and other individuals who acted voluntarily or through coercion,” he said.

“The information collected for the government of India is then used to target members of the South Asian community,” Duheme added.

Earlier this year, Canada charged several Indian nationals with the alleged murder of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. At the time, authorities were investigating whether they had ties to the Indian government.

Nijjar was gunned down by masked men last June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. He was a prominent campaigner for a separate Sikh homeland out of India, which would be known as Khalistan and include parts of India’s Punjab state.

Last September, Trudeau said he had credible information linking the Indian government to the killing of Nijjar. The allegation outraged India, which has forcefully denied the claim, calling it “absurd.” The diplomatic fallout saw tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats from both countries.

In its statement Monday, the Indian government said that since Trudeau made those allegations, the Canadian government had “not shared a shred of evidence” and that recent assertions had also been made “without any facts.”

The RCMP said Monday it had presented “evidence” to Indian government officials directly. “We continue to ask that the Indian government support the ongoing investigation in the Nijjar case, as it remains in both our countries’ interest to get to the bottom of this,” Global Affairs Canada added.

Campaigning for the creation of Khalistan has long been outlawed in India, where painful memories of a deadly insurgency by some Sikh separatists continue to haunt many. But it garners a level of public sympathy among some in the Sikh diaspora overseas, where activists protected by free speech laws can more openly demand secession from India.

Weeks after Trudeau’s announcement in 2023, the United States accused an Indian government official of being involved in a conspiracy to kill another Sikh separatist, American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, on US soil. A US indictment unsealed in November accused an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, of trying to kill Pannun, who is a wanted man in India and considered a terrorist by the government.

— This is a developing story and will be updated.

French researcher Laurent Vinatier was found guilty by a Moscow court on Monday of breaking Russia’s “foreign agent” laws and sentenced to three years in prison.

Vinatier, 48, is one of several Westerners to have been charged under Russian security laws at a time of tense confrontation between Moscow and the West over the war in Ukraine. The judge ignored a plea by the defense to fine him instead of jailing him.

In a speech to the court before he was sentenced, Vinatier said he loved Russia, apologised for breaking the law, and even recited a verse by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

Wearing a blue open-necked shirt and jeans, he stood behind metal bars and listened intently as the judge rattled off the verdict. He was blinking rapidly but did not show any visible emotion.

A longtime researcher on the former Soviet Union, he was arrested in June by the FSB security service and accused of failing to register as a foreign agent in Russia while collecting military information of value to foreign intelligence services.

The offence carries a sentence of up to five years, but prosecutors requested a term of three years and three months in recognition of the fact that Vinatier had pleaded guilty.

State news agency RIA said the defence planned to appeal.

France says Vinatier has been arbitrarily detained and has called on Monday for his immediate release. President Emmanuel Macron has denied that Vinatier worked for the French state and has described his arrest as part of a misinformation campaign by Moscow.

“The legislation on ‘foreign agents’ contributes to a systematic violation of fundamental freedoms in Russia, such as freedom of association, freedom of opinion and freedom of expression,” France’s foreign ministry said. “French authorities remain fully mobilized to provide assistance (to Vinatier),” the ministry added.

Vinatier is an employee of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), a Swiss-based conflict mediation organisation. Fellow academics who know him have told Reuters he is a respected scholar involved in legitimate research.

‘A Russian life’

Independent news outlet Mediazona quoted Vinatier as asking the court for forgiveness.

“I am not afraid to say that I fell in love with Russia. This is confirmed by my personal life – my wife is Russian, my friends are Russian. I lived a Russian life and still, even the last four months, I have been living in a Russian atmosphere,” he said, referring to the period since his arrest.

He asked for a “fair and lenient” decision, saying he had children and elderly parents who depended on him, and recited by heart a verse from Pushkin’s poem “If Life Deceives You”.

Under Russian law, people are obliged to contact the justice ministry and register as foreign agents if they are involved in political activity or are collecting military information while receiving financial or other help from abroad.

The FSB said in July that Vinatier had tried to use his numerous contacts with political scientists, sociologists, economists, military experts and government officials to collect military details “that could be used by foreign intelligence services to the detriment” of Russia’s security.

In a statement following his arrest, his employer HD said its staff work globally and “routinely meet with a wide range of officials, experts and other parties with the aim of advancing efforts to prevent, mitigate and resolve armed conflict”.

Russia says relations with France have hit a low since French authorities placed the Russian founder of the Telegram messaging app, Pavel Durov, under formal investigation in August in connection with the use of the platform for crimes such as fraud, money laundering and child pornography. Durov’s lawyer has called the proceedings against him absurd.

Both parents were wearing stickers with “374” written on them to mark the number of days that have passed since the hostages were taken captive to Gaza by Hamas.

“I was certain that we were going to see a global demand for action and I’m still waiting for it. The world failed us … the world failed so many of these hostages, including Hersh,” Polin said.

Goldberg-Polin was one of six hostages whose bodies were discovered by the Israeli military in tunnels under Gaza shortly after they had been killed by Hamas.

Polin said when he and his wife had voiced concerns that Hamas might execute the hostages as military pressure mounted, Israeli officials had reassured them such an outcome was highly unlikely.

Along with two of the other murdered hostages, Goldberg-Polin had been expected to be released during the first phase of an eventual ceasefire agreement. The hostage deaths led to widespread anger and nationwide protests in Israel over the failure by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to strike a hostages-for-ceasefire deal.

“We worried a little bit about that all along. Within all our optimism that we were going to get Hersh home, there was some doubt in the back of our minds that it could end this way,” he said. “I worry that if we don’t save others soon, there are going to be other families getting the horrific news that we’ve received.”

Goldberg urged “people in power” to “go save the 101” hostages remaining in Gaza. “There are thousands and thousands of people suffering in Gaza. Some of them have lived there for many years and some of them have lived there for 374 days and it’s time to bring them home,” she told Cooper.

Goldberg-Polin’s parents have been among the most vocal of the hostage families pushing Netanyahu to seek a deal securing their relatives’ return. They’ve also regularly met top US officials in Washington to press the case of the hostages.

Goldberg-Polin was among the hundreds of young people who attended the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7, the day Hamas launched its surprise attacks in which more than 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

He and some of his friends hid in a bomb shelter but became trapped by militants who began to lob grenades into the bunker. Goldberg-Polin helped to throw some of those grenades back out of the shelter before his left arm was blown off from the elbow down, according to a firsthand account from one of his friends.

Footage taken on the day of that attack showed Goldberg-Polin being marched out of the shelter – with his hand blown off and bone protruding from his wrist – and thrown along with four others into the back of a truck.

His parents told Cooper that Goldberg-Polin and the others had later been held in a tunnel 65 feet (20 meters) underground that was just 2 feet wide and 5-and-a-half feet high – too small for the 6ft tall Goldberg-Polin to stand in. They were also severely malnourished. By the time of his death, Goldberg-Polin weighed just 115 pounds (52 kilograms), his father said.

They also shared details of his final moments, saying it appeared he had used his remaining hand in an attempt to shield himself.

“It seems that when he was being shot he had put up as a defense both of his arms, so a bullet went through his right hand through his shoulder actually then into his neck then out the side of his head,” Goldberg said.

“Supposedly he was standing crouched up … they think that then he dropped to his knees and then he was shot with the gun on his head, the back of his head … and he was found on his knees two days later.”

Still possible to ‘choose life’

Receiving the news on August 31 that their son was among the six dead hostages found by the Israeli military was “a crushing blow and we are still grappling with it,” Polin said.

He said the couple had spent “so much time beyond our public campaign in our apartment with our two daughters literally planning what it was going to be when we brought him home. What would the family look like? What would the celebration look like?”

“It’s crushing to spend those days so optimistic, so hopeful, so focused to have it end like this,” Polin said, adding they had wondered if their hope had worked against them.

“Maybe our optimism was something that drove influencers to lack urgency, to feel like, he’s going to come home at some point somehow and … maybe it was too infectious,” Polin said.

Goldberg added: “I’m just trying to get through each day. We are in the first centimeter in a million-mile journey of how do we get through the rest of our lives yearning and missing our son.”

Born in Oakland, California, Goldberg-Polin immigrated to Israel with his family at age 7. An elder brother to two sisters, he was a “happy-go-lucky, laid back, good humored, respectful and curious person” who loved soccer and music, according to his mother.

She later said the family was determined to “live” and “not just exist” following his death.

“I want to live the life that Hersh should’ve lived and that’s a life filled with love and happiness and light. We will always have this deep void but I think that it’s still possible to have that void and to be happy and choose life.”

China flew a record number of fighter jets and other warplanes around Taiwan during its large-scale military drills on Monday, the island’s Defense Ministry said.

The one-day military exercises, which involved Chinese fighter jets, drones, warships and Coast Guard vessels simulating a blockade of the self-governing island, was condemned by Taiwan as an “unreasonable provocation” and is the latest in a series of recent war games conducted by Beijing against its neighbor.

According to the ministry, 153 Chinese aircraft were detected around Taiwan in a 25-hour period between Monday and Tuesday.

Of those, 111 warplanes crossed the Median Line – an informal demarcation point in the Taiwan Strait that Beijing does not recognize, but until recent years had largely respected – and entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

An ADIZ is unilaterally imposed and distinct from sovereign airspace, which is defined under international law as extending 12 nautical miles from a territory’s shoreline. No Chinese warplanes were spotted entering Taiwan’s sovereign airspace, a step that would be considered a major escalation.

While not directly comparable, the spike in Chinese warplanes on Monday superseded the previous daily record in September 2023, when 103 Chinese military aircraft were detected operating around Taiwan in a 24-hour span.

In response to the latest incursions, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it employed its own aircraft, navy vessels and coastal missile systems to monitor the activity.

China said its military drills were intended as a “stern waning” to independence forces in Taiwan and came days after the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, gave a speech vowing to protect Taiwan’s sovereignty in the face of challenges from Beijing.

Taiwan “is not subordinate” to China, Lai said on Taiwan’s National Day Thursday, and Beijing “does not have the right to represent Taiwan.”

China’s military exercises around Taiwan, a democracy of 24 million people, have become increasingly frequent in recent years and have tended to coincide with events that have angered Beijing.

Those drills allow China to monitor Taiwan’s responses and also tax the island’s own military resources including its aging and outgunned fleet of fighter jets.

Analysts said Monday’s drills were part of a general strategy of both keeping Taiwan under pressure and normalizing regular war games.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory, despite having never controlled it. It has long vowed that the island must be “unified” with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary, while the Taiwanese authorities strongly reject China’s territorial claims over it. Many people on the island view themselves as distinctly Taiwanese.

The People’s Liberation Army said the drills were a joint operation of the army, navy, air force and rocket force, and were conducted in the Taiwan Strait – a narrow body of water separating the island from mainland China – as well as encircling Taiwan.

A map released by the Eastern Theater Command showed drills taking place in nine areas surrounding Taiwan as well as its outlying islands that are closer to mainland China.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry added that 14 warships were detected around Taiwan over the same 25-hour period. Among them was the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, which moved into a location to the east of the island.

During the military exercise, none of China’s naval vessels successfully entered Taiwan’s contiguous zone, which is defined under international law as extending 24 nautical miles from a territory’s shoreline, the ministry said in a press conference on Monday evening.

Analysts, however, said the drills were “highly dangerous,” and because they are “approaching, closer and closer,” will “leave us [with] a very short response time.”

The Chinese military said it kicked off the Joint Sword 2024-B drills at 5 a.m. local time Monday. By 6 p.m. an updated statement announced that it had “successfully” completed the exercises.

According to a flight map provided by Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, Chinese jets were detected around the island after China’s announcement that it had wrapped up its war games.