TOKYO, October 16. /TASS/. Israel has amassed about 400 pieces of equipment in areas bordering northern Gaza, Nikkei Asia reports, citing satellite imagery.

According to the media outlet, this points to the possibility that Israel is preparing for a ground operation, "rushing to deploy forces within ten kilometers of the border." The equipment includes armored personnel carriers and other armored vehicles.

The images were taken by the US company Planet Labs on October 15.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog confirmed to CNN on Monday that Israel was preparing a ground operation.

According to the New York Times, Israel’s ground operation in Gaza was expected to begin last weekend "but was delayed by a few days at least in part because of weather conditions that would have made it harder for Israeli pilots and drone operators to provide ground forces with air cover." Israel plans to send tens of thousands of troops to seize the city of Gaza and overthrow the enclave’s current authorities. "The assault is expected to be Israel’s biggest ground operation since it invaded Lebanon in 2006. It would also be the first in which Israel has attempted to capture land and at least briefly hold onto it since its invasion of Gaza in 2008, according to the three senior officers," the New York Times wrote. "The operation risks locking Israel into months of bloody urban combat <...> in a narrow and tightly packed sliver of land populated by more than two million people," the newspaper added.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again after Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7. The Palestinian movement described its attack as a response to the actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank. More than 2,900 Palestinians have been killed and about 10,900 have suffered wounds; in Israel, the death toll stands at about 1,500 and nearly 4,000 people have been wounded.