Egypt has begun construction to expand its buffer zone from 500 meters to a kilometer wide, along the border with Gaza, as it continues its war on terror in the Sinai Peninsula.

Numerous terrorist groups had already made themselves comfortable in the wide expanses of Sinai when Muslim Brotherhood-backed Mohammed Morsi became the first democratically-elected president of Egypt. He was deposed a year later by the military after more than a million citizens protested the hardline Islamist government.

During Morsi’s one-year tenure numerous terrorist groups flocked to the region and set up training and operations bases — including Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others. The local Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, originally linked to Al Qaeda, recently swore allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.

Originally, the buffer zone was cleared in February 2014 to 300 meters in urban areas. It was 500 meters wide in rural areas.

Security sources told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency some 1,200 houses in the area are to be evacuated and demolished.

Homeowners will be reimbursed by the government, however.

Each homeowner is to receive 1,500 Egyptian pounds ($209) to cover rentals for the next three months, said North Sinai district governor Abd al-Fattah Harhour.

In addition, for each square meter of cement, each family will receive 1,200 pounds $167.) The government will add 700 pounds ($97) for each square meter of the house based on the bearing wall system, Harhour said.

The Egyptian government has been actively destroying smuggling tunnels under the border created by Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorists. Hamas was spawned by Egypt’s outlawed radical Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

Despite was what supposed to have been a complete disengagement from Gaza, and the Gazan’s direct border crossing with Egypt, Israel still remains the preferred, and sometimes the only choice for Gazans who want to import and export goods and merchandise.

And Hamas terrorists are making a tidy sum off that trade, according to a Makor Rishon report.

After Israel completely evacuated all the Jews from Gaza and Gush Katif in 2005, the Palestinian Authority took over. But in 2007, Hamas violently took over the Gaza strip, slaughtering their political opponents.

Since the terrorist organization’s coup Hamas has been the primary terror group in charge of the Gaza Strip.

Despite Hamas, civilian trade with Israel still continued.

In 2014, 61,000 trucks passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza. That crossing is located in southern Gaza near Rafah. There is also trade that goes through the northern Erez crossing.

During Operation Protective Edge, over 130,000 tons of merchandise crossed into Gaza. 15% of Israeli fruit are exported to Gaza.

Gaza has also recently begun exporting produce to Judea and Samaria, and 40 trucks have already passed into Israel in the past few months.

This past week, Kibbutz Yad Mordechai held an agricultural conference in which farmers and distributors from Gaza participated – in Israel.

Gazan importers are looking for even lower prices than they get now, and during the conference it came out why.

Gazan importers must pay protection money to Hamas of between 50 to 100 shekels per ton, on products imported from Israel.

And that’s just to start off with.

In addition, each truck that passes into Gaza is charged a fee.

Canned goods and potatoes are charged an additional 1800 shekels per truck, trucks carrying coffee pay Hamas 2500 shekels per truck, and each truck transporting clothing into Israel pays 4000 shekels to Hamas.

It’s estimated that Hamas’s 2014 “tax” revenue from Israeli imports stands at 175 million shekels ($45 million dollars). You can build a lot of terror tunnels and rockets with that kind of money.

Hamas also takes a cut from the smuggling tunnels between Gaza and the Sinai.

The Gazans said that before the war this past summer their economic situation was difficult, but now everything is collapsing.

At the conference, the Gazans said they missed Gush Katif and working with the Jewish Settlers.

One Gazan at the conference said, “We worked there with the Jews [from Gush Katif] and everything was good.” He continued, “We’re still in contact with them, and dream of those bygone days. Now there is no hope. My children want candy, but there isn’t any money to buy them any. My son wants to get married. I look to the sky and pray, because I know that I can’t help them.”

One wouldn’t be wrong if you thought many Gazans want the IDF to kick Hamas out, and for the Jews come back home — to Gush Katif.

Soldiers caught two Palestinian Authority rock-throwing terrorists in the act of trying to murder Jews on Monday and killed one and wounded the other after they refused to heed warning shots near the Tapuach junction in northern Samaria.

Elsewhere, soldiers fired warning shots at Gaza terrorists approaching Israel on land and by sea, and terrorists threw firebombs on the secondary highway linking Jerusalem with Tel Aviv via Modi’in. A firebomb attacks last Thursday night has left an 11-year-old Israeli girl in critical condition.

“The forces called them to halt and fired warning shots, and when they didn’t comply they responded to the threat with direct fire which wounded one of the attackers,” an IDF spokeswoman said.

The other terrorist, age 19 according to the Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency, was evacuated to a hospital in Shechem with moderate gunshot wounds.

In Gaza, soldiers fired warning shots over the heads of Arabs approaching the separate barriers and at fishing boats veering towards prohibited waters.

Second Lt. Aharon Karov, less than 24 hours after his own wedding, left his bride and returned to his vase in southern Israel to serve as a commander and led his soldiers into battle at the start of Operation Cast Lead.

He was critically wounded on the night of January 12, 2009, when Karov and his soldiers entered northern Gaza. They followed detailed intelligence information which led them to various houses and structures where terrorists were hiding. When they arrived at one of these houses, a powerful explosive was activated.

Between 300 and 500 metal fragments penetrated his body, and he suffered from a major injury in his head and upper body.

Moments later, a complex rescue mission began to save the wounded officer. IDF medics performed life-saving procedures on the battlefield and in the air as Karov was evacuated by helicopter.

Over the next 12 hours, Karov underwent a set of complex and dangerous surgeries in order to remove part of his skull. His family was told that he was in critical condition and Karov was named the most severely wounded soldier during Operation Cast Lead.

Three weeks later, against all odds, Karov was released from the hospital to begin rehabilitation.

Karov began his recovery with a deep commitment to the treatments prescribed to him by the doctors as well as a bundle of support from his family. The process was long, exhausting, and touched the heart of the entire nation. Thousands of letters of encouragement and blessing strengthened him and aided him during his journey towards recovery.

This officer’s remarkable improvement is considered a miracle. When he regained the ability to speak, Karov’s first words were dedicated to his wife. He called her on the phone and told her, “Tzvia, I love you.”

Roughly two months after the incident in Gaza, Karov’s soldiers finished their training. Karov, who insisted on being a part of the ceremony for his soldiers, stood on his legs for almost 2 hours despite his physical condition. At the end of the ceremony, he pinned his soldiers with a pin declaring them fighters, and was then promoted to the rank of Lieutenant by the Paratroopers’ Brigade Commander.

Step-by-step, word-by-word, Karov inspired the entire nation. His condition improved faster than anyone would have believed and not long after his injury Karov did the impossible and participated in various races and even a marathon. The young couple also grew their family and Karov’s wife gave birth to two children: a girl who was born a year and a half after the incident and a boy a few years later.

Today, Karov shares his story across the country, mostly with young men and women who are about to join the army.

Even though the physical injury was deep and severe, his spirit was strengthened.

Operation Cast Lead restored quite in southern Israel for a couple of years, but the legacy established by Karov and many other soldiers will last for many generations to come.

Aharon Karov leaving the hospital.

The early warning Code Red siren sounded shortly before noon Friday in the area of Netiv Asara and Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, sending residents to bomb shelters.

The “rocket” apparently was rifle fire from Gaza.

Residents also have reported they have heard sounds of tunnels being built underground.

Gaza’s various terrorist factions are meeting in Gaza on Thursday morning, at the bequest of senior Hamas officials, to discuss “Israeli violations of the cease-fire” since the end of this past summer’s war, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

The meeting follows Wednesday’s clash when a Gazan sniper seriously wounded an IDF soldier and the IDF responded with artillery and machine-gun fire. Hamas claimed one of its commanders at a lookout post was killed.

The injured IDF soldier’s condition, which was serious, has improved.

Hamas denied that the sniper was “one of theirs” and that the elimination of the Hamas commander is a “dangerous violation of the cease-fire and crosses a red line.”

Hamas has been the de facto regime ruling over Gaza since it ousted its rival Fatah (PA) terrorist faction in a bloody battle in June 2007.

Taking responsibility for Gaza but not for terrorist attacks by rival or cooperating factions within Gaza, is a nifty way to accuse Israel of breaking the cease-fire when the IDF shoots back.

Yesterday’s clash took place at the security barrier, where the IDF was on patrol.

If the sniper was not from Hamas as Hamas claims, then why did the terrorist organization allow a rival terrorist in the area?

And if it was a Hamas commander at a lookout post who was killed in the clash, why did he allow the sniper, supposedly not from Hamas, to walk around in the area with a rifle?

Or, just maybe, Hamas is lying.

Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorists received a blizzard of grim warnings Wednesday after a sniper attack launched a major battle with IDF soldiers guarding those working on the security fence near Kibbutz Nirim and Nir Oz.

Despite a blustery response, the terror group was also not entirely stupid: its commanders have once again begun to head underground into hiding, anticipating Israeli retaliation for their actions and forcing Gaza’s civilian human shields to live with the consequences.

Speaking at the Calcalist Conference, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Israeli forces “responded appropriately and we will act in an appropriate and powerful manner as any incident demands.”

Gantz added there is a possibility “events will deteriorate and develop into a significant incident.”

Referencing links between Iranian-backed Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al Qaeda-linked Salafi Army of Islam in Gaza and the Jabhat al Nusra terror group in Syria, and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization, Gantz also noted a “strong possibility of a connection between fronts – that an incident in the north will influence an incident in the south.”

“We will respond with force every time there is an attempt to disturb the quiet that was attained in the south after Operation Protective Edge,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a statement following the battle.

His statement was backed up by a similar warning from Strategic Affairs and Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz. “Hamas needs to understand that if it continues to undermine the security situation on the Gaza border, it risks a harsh Israeli response, which could turn into a comprehensive military campaign to demolish its government and military infrastructure,” Steinitz said.

The Hamas Izz a-Din al-Qassam military wing later issued its own statement from Gaza, accusing Israel of a “dangerous violation and a crossing of all red lines, as well as playing with fire… The enemy alone bears the responsibility of the repercussions of its uncalculated actions.

“It seems that this murderous enemy has not learned the hard lessons it was dealt by the resistance in the past. The enemy thinks that our people and the resistance are tired or exhausted after the last war,” the terror group added.

An allied terrorist organization, the Popular Resistance Movement, warned Israel would pay a ‘heavy price’ for killing one of its top commanders.

The clash began with a Hamas sniper’s bullet fired into the chest of an Israeli soldier on patrol. It led to an intense battle that included shelling from IDF tanks and Israeli air strikes as well.

Taysir al-Samiri 33, commander of the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades surveillance unit was killed in the battle, the terror group confirmed. Two other Gazans were also wounded, according to local medics.

But, “As a result of the attack, an IDF combat soldier from the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion suffered a severe chest injury,” the IDF said in a statement. The soldier was airlifted to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva and his family was notified. He is listed in critical condition.

United Nations deputy Mideast envoy James Rawley has meanwhile expressed “concern” over the deteriorating situation on the Gaza border.

Carefully walking a tightrope of “neutrality” Rawley’s statement urged all parties to maintain and reinforce the August 26 “cease-fire” that ended Operation Protective Edge – but has already been broken by Hamas numerous times since then.

Rawley said in his statement that he is “deeply concerned by reports of exchange of fire between Palestinian militants and the IDF in the southern Gaza Strip today, which resulted in casualties on both sides.

“This follows a series of armed incidents since the end of November,” he noted – without pointing out that the “armed incidents” were actually unprovoked attacks launched solely by Gaza terrorists at Israelis.