TEL AVIV, October 20. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the front line and met with soldiers of the elite Golani infantry brigade deployed near the border with the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel reported.

"We are going to win with all our might. All of Israel is behind you, and we are going to heavily strike our enemies so that we can achieve victory," Netanyahu told a group of soldiers.

According to the newspaper, senior Israeli officials have paid a series of visits to the servicemen of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stationed near the Gaza Strip in recent days, warning them of the inevitability of a large-scale ground operation to eradicate the Hamas terrorist group and predicting that the fighting will be difficult and long, but ultimately victorious.

Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said earlier that the military has not yet made a final decision on a ground operation in Gaza. The spokesman pointed out that Israel is capable of withstanding a two-front war.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank of the Jordan River as well.