TEL AVIV, November 1. /TASS/. Israeli troops are operating deep inside the Gaza Strip and they are already on the outskirts of Gaza itself - the largest city of the Palestinian enclave of the same name, Brigadier General Itzik Cohen, the commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ 162nd Division has told the media.

The Times of Israel quotes him as saying Israeli units are already "at the gates of Gaza City."

Cohen said that five days ago, his division "received an important task to go and decisively finish Hamas."

"We have destroyed much of Hamas's abilities, attacked its strategic facilities, all of its array of explosives, its underground tunnels and other facilities we completely destroyed," Cohen said.

The way he sees it, Israel's operation in Gaza will be "a long task," and that this is "a war for the existence of the State of Israel - and we will win," Cohen assured.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, with mass killings of civilians in border communities and the taking of 200 hundred hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas described its operation as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel has declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and carried out air strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as some areas of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also underway in the West Bank.