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.”