NEW YORK, October 25. /TASS/. Israel's ground operation in the Gaza Strip will lead to the fiercest street fighting since World War II, the New York Times said.

"It’s going to be ugly. Cities are the devil’s playground — they make everything infinitely more difficult," US military strategist Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Arnold pointed out.

According to the newspaper, an operation in the enclave could take "several months, if not years", and lead to "a spike in demand for weapons, and added global volatility", as well as potential spreading of the conflict to Lebanon and Iran, "along with possible attacks on American troops in Iraq." Such operations in densely populated areas, the New York Times said, could also lead to heavy civilian casualties.

Earlier, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh said that Israel intends to turn Gaza City into Hiroshima, with the difference that nuclear weapons will not be used. He explained that the Israeli forces can use American guided bombs, which can penetrate to a depth of 30-50 meters before the explosion, which will destroy the Hamas underground facilities for the production of weapons.

Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said during an open debate in the UN Security Council that Israel, by carrying out a violent action in the Gaza Strip, risks provoking a larger conflict that would go beyond the region.

 

On Palestinian-Israeli conflict

 

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.

The Gaza Health Ministry reported that the number of Palestinians killed as a result of Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East has exceeded 5,000, more than 15,000 people were injured. Only in the past 24 hours, according to the ministry, 436 Palestinians, including 182 children, became victims of shelling. The number of missing persons, who may be under the rubble of buildings destroyed by the bombing, is 1,500, including 830 children.