TEHRAN- The Israeli regime has mobilized hundreds of thousands of reservists ahead of an anticipated large-scale ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The invasion of Gaza, should it go ahead, amid days of delay, would be an operation that involves over 300,000 Israeli soldiers who need training and equipping.

An air, land, and maritime invasion is also particularly difficult to coordinate and undoubtedly carries a major risk.

The occupation (still reeling from one of the worst attacks in its 75-year short history) has readied its tanks in a dusty patch of countryside close to Gaza.

Some news outlets have claimed to have secret documents that say Hamas had been planning Operation al-Aqsa Storm for a year. 

Whether these documents are authentic or not, it is certain that the Palestinian resistance had prepared for all scenarios before staging its operation on October 7.

One of the scenarios is that Israeli forces stage a large-scale ground offensive to rescue prisoners of war taken by Hamas. 

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the occupation is gearing up to "demolish Hamas" in Gaza. 

Easier said than done. 

The regime will face a major conundrum should it launch its expected ground offensive in Gaza.

The movements and routes of its troops entering Gaza City?, which is where they will need to be "to demolish Hamas", is pretty much known to Hamas.

The Israeli military may go across to the south of Gaza City to isolate Hamas from fleeing down across the Gaza River and then potentially encircle the urban north, in particular Gaza City. But Hamas won't be fleeing. This is their home. 

Should the Israeli military enter Gaza City, it would require the regime's most elite troops to conduct a special forces mission, but reservists would play a major role as well. 

These are the same elite troops that have been forced to withdraw under heavy fire and casualties, on a number of occasions, from a newly emerged armed resistance in the occupied West Bank. 

The Israeli Givati Brigade is most likely expected to be among the first wave of troops into Gaza City, a Hamas stronghold, just like the unit led the way in 2014, during a short military incursion. 

But this is not a short military incursion. It's being described by the Israeli premier as an invasion to completely "get rid" of Hamas.

In Gaza, Israeli troops will face a much more powerful and sophisticated resistance, with years of planning for the same scenario that Netanyahu has been boasting about.

It will not be like invading occupied West Bank cities, towns and villages.

Israel has dropped a record number of bombs on Gaza for its troops to enter, this is a sign of desperation by the regime.

Hamas fighters are dug in and know the areas of their combat duties inside out. Israeli troops would need to follow very carefully thought-out military guidelines to the tee to avoid being killed. 

The major unknown and the major risk for the Israeli troops is Hamas's network of underground tunnels.

These tunnel networks are not small. They are certainly not tunnels built to escape or flee with the resistance forces crawling on their hands and knees. 

They are very substantial tunnel networks that have been constructed over many years with reinforced concrete and have power as well as communications, and almost certainly have bulletproof doors.

They have rooms where they have headquarters and command centers to coordinate with other resistance units on the movements of Israeli troops. 

The Israeli military could potentially face a countless number of ambushes.

And of course, Hamas has been working on these tunnels for decades, not just for planning operations but also to rest and eat.

Israel has absolutely no idea where all of them run. That means the resistance could pop up almost anywhere and present a serious threat to the lives of the occupation’s troops.

Given that they pose such a danger to the occupation regime, that will be a major dilemma for the Israeli military, if and when they go into Gaza City itself, which is located in the north of the Gaza Strip. 

With the heavy investment of this surprise element, the tunnels now stretch to other parts of the northern Gaza Strip such as the cities of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and the surrounding areas, as well as the southern Gaza Strip.

In previous Israeli wars waged on Gaza, the resistance used underground tunnels to infiltrate into Israeli settlements, where Hamas fighters popped out of the tunnels and straight into Israeli military bases outside the occupied Gaza Strip. 

This took the Israeli forces by surprise and led to the loss of Israeli troops; another real possibility this time around that could embarrass the regime further.

Israel is not considering occupying Gaza since it was forced to withdraw under fire from the resistance forces in 2005. However, the United Nations and other international parties consider otherwise, because of the regime's continued control of Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters, and its ability to cut utilities and block the entry of food and fuel.

Hamas commandoes are fully prepared and equipped for this ground battle.

This is another element of surprise that awaits the occupation. 

The regime does not know what weapons Hamas possesses, in a similar way that it was taken aback by the weapons Lebanon's Hezbollah had stockpiled in the July 2006 war against the Lebanese resistance. 

Hamas has the advantage of years of training with advanced weaponry to stage street-to-street combat?? against the invading force. 

For Israelis, street-to-street combat will be one of the hardest forms of warfare, with each building a potential boobytrap, each alley a possible ambush point, and snipers able to hide inside homes.

The Palestinian resistance with all its factions will be better placed to fight Israeli reservists?, especially amid reports that many have failed to show up for duty in protest at the domestic measures undertaken by Netanyahu's unpopular cabinet.

Such is the scale of the Israeli mission and the shock that Operation al-Aqsa Storm left on the occupation regime; Netanyahu formed a unity government in what was essentially an SOS cry for help. 

This will not help the Israeli prime minister. The regime's troops will enter Gaza with full military armor, making them targets for the Palestinian resistance factions, who, in some cases, wear more casual clothing, which would catch the enemy by surprise. 

Not all resistance fighters wear military uniforms as many Palestinians could take up arms and resist the invasion as volunteers. 

An issue that has set alarm bells across the globe with many in the international community warning an Israeli ground invasion?, with the magnitude the Israelis have been talking about, would constitute a war crime. 

What Western leaders have deliberately failed to publicly state is that the Gaza Strip is a very small piece of territory that has been under blockade since 2007. Hamas and other resistance factions are the fabric of its decades-old refugees. 

The majority of the Palestinians, according to a recent survey, support the resistance more than Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. 

Hamas itself, as a movement, is known to possess drones, which can fly and bomb Israeli military units.

The Palestinian resistance has an unknown stock of man-portable air defense systems, which would pose a threat to Israeli helicopters, should they be forced to fly low in an attempt to rescue the prisoners of war or injured soldiers. 

In addition, Hamas and its 40,000-strong soldiers have a stockpile of various anti-tank missiles to target Israeli infantry. 

These may not be used in an Israeli ground invasion, where tanks would not be able to move in small streets and alleys that make up most of Gaza City, but a unit could be dispatched to ambush Israeli tanks sitting further afield.

The invasion would also be made up of troops to enter Gaza City and other areas of northern Gaza where experts believe it would essentially come down to a matter of faith.

On the Palestinian side, Hamas has nothing to lose in street-to-street combat. They are not afraid of martyrdom, especially as they are being killed anyway in Israel's ethnic cleansing campaign. 

On the other hand, Israeli troops have a completely opposite faith and would want to enter and leave the territory without giving the ultimate sacrifice, which is death.

History shows that where Palestinian martyrs are honored, the loss of Israeli troops is a disastrously bad PR campaign for the regime. 

On Sunday, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak said the October 7 attack by Hamas was the "most severe blow" Israel has suffered since the day of its establishment in 1948.

For a military that failed to keep its own settlers safe from Hamas, it will be extremely risky to face the group in street-to-street combat. 

Before October 7, Israel had no plans for a ground offensive in Gaza with the regime entangled in multiple domestic crises rooted in Netanyahu's deeply unpopular judicial overhaul bill that saw hundreds of thousands of angry Israelis protesting against the changes to the regime's judiciary since January this year. 

Nine days ago, the Israeli military believed it was living in peace. It now finds itself on the brink of one of the most major offensives that it has had in a generation. 

It has also had just over a week to plan and execute a ground offensive against a deeply urban environment, which may explain why the regime has delayed its "imminent" invasion of Gaza to further evaluate the potential losses it will incur during the invasion. 
Israel may now present that opportunity to Hamas and other Palestinian factions. 

Local media reports say Hamas would relish the opportunity. 

The majority of its fighters remain in the Gaza Strip. 

Among Israel's vast propaganda and psychological warfare campaigns were statements that it killed 1,500 Hamas fighters who had infiltrated into Israeli settlements.

This was met with ridicule by Hamas sources, who said the group did not even dispatch such a high number of its fighters.

Days later, Israeli military officials reduced the number to 1,000. 

While Hamas has declined to give the exact figure, footage shows many of its fighters returning to the Gaza Strip. 

As Israeli missiles rain down on Palestinians, leading to more than 15,000 civilian casualties, with thousands more missing under the rubble of collapsed residential buildings, in a clear war crime that has appalled the majority of the world, it appears that Hamas fighters are still alive and ready to fight. 

Experts have said that what Israel plans next, it may regret forever.