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.

The IDF confirmed this week that Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror organization planned a massive terror attack on Israel via its tunnel network this September.

IDF Spokesperson Peter Lerner said the terror group planned to infiltrate into multiple Jewish communities through tunnels under Israel’s southern border.

Terrorists would have then murdered and abducted as many victims as possible, “inflicting mass casualties,” he said in an interview published Tuesday in Vanity Fair.

“Hamas had a plan. . . A simultaneous, coordinated, surprise attack within Israel. They planned to send 200 terrorists armed to the teeth toward civilian populations. This was going to be a coordinated attack. The concept of operations involved 14 offensive tunnels into Israel. With at least 10 men in each tunnel, they would infiltrate and inflict mass casualties,” Lerner told the publication.

This is not the first report of such a plan. During the latter weeks of Operation Protective Edge, Hebrew-language Israeli media also quoted unnamed military officials who told of the “grand plan” by Hamas, which was alleged at that time to be set for Rosh HaShanah.

Hamas used its terror tunnel network with great success in June 2006 to murder IDF soldiers and kidnap then-IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who remained in captivity until 2011.

Israel traded more than a thousand Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists – including hundreds of bloodthirsty murderers serving long sentences – in order to rescue Shalit from Gaza.

Destroying the Hamas terror tunnel network was one of two main objectives of Operation Protective Edge this past summer; the other was to silence the incessant rocket and missile fire aimed at Israeli civilians by Gaza terrorists.

According to the IDF, 38 tunnels were destroyed during the operation before Israel was forced to end the operation due to pressure from the international community, and the United States. Many of the tunnels that were destroyed led directly into Israel from Gaza, and were to be used as conduits for terror attacks in Israel.

Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal referred to them as “defensive” tunnels, according to the report in Vanity Fair.

“The tunnels may have been outwardly called ‘offensive tunnels’ but in actual fact they are ‘defensive’ ones,” Meshaal was quoted as saying.

Two Hamas terror cells emerged from those tunnels, near Kibbutz Nir Am and Kibbutz Erez, on July 21 – during the 50-day war with Hamas.

A bloody battle ensued between IDF soldiers and the heavily armed terrorists, preventing what might otherwise have been wholesale slaughter in a defenseless civilian Israeli village or town.

Hamas terror tunnels, destroyed by the IDF war against Hamas terror, have become more popular than the Western Wall tunnel, where thousands of tourists walk daily.

Lt. Libby Weiss from the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit gives an exclusive look into the tunnel that ended near Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha. The discovery of the tunnel foiled what would have been a mass slaughter of Jews on the kibbutz at the hands of Hamas murderers. But how could the IDF spokeswoman have led a virtual tour of the tunnel if the IDF destroyed all of them? An IDF spokesman explained to The Jewish Press that the military left the Israeli side of the tunnel in tact so that it could be used for military training as well as for the media to see how Hamas used the humanitarian aid.

Perhaps the kibbutz or the IDF could encourage tourism in the south by opening the tunnel for public tours. An “Israel tunnel tour” could take people to the terror tunnel to understand the demented brain of Hamas and then could take them to Jerusalem to walk through the Western Wall tunnel and experience the site where Herod expanded the Second Temple.

Residents of Gaza Belt communities were furious on the first day of school, Monday morning (Sept. 1), when they woke to find no one at the guard posts.

“Once again, I arrived at the moshav and found no one in the guarding posts,” Yifat Ben Shoshan, a resident from the community of Netiv Ha’Asara, told media. “Only a week ago you couldn’t come near the place because of the threat from Gaza – it was a closed military zone. Now it’s less than a week since the cease-fire started and they’re already pulling out soldiers.

The government is acting as if we’re already at peace and nothing has happened here. This cannot be ignored,” she said.

The chairperson of the residents’ committee in the moshav, Penina Rogolski, said she could not understand why the soldiers disappeared. “We’re trying to find out with army officials who gave the order and why this decision was made. I don’t understand what happened to the promises we received,” she said. “As far as we know, the situation and threats haven’t changed. We want answers.”

A number of terror tunnels leading to the moshav, which is located quite close to the border with Gaza, were uncovered during Operation Protective Edge and deadly battles were fought with the terrorists who emerged from the shafts the seemed to appear from nowhere. Some of those tunnels led directly to the communities. The residents are deeply concerned about sending their children to school in the area without active security around them, believing that not all of the tunnels have yet been uncovered and also not convinced that the current cease-fire will hold.

Similar concerns were expressed by residents of Kfar Aza, Yad Mordechai and Mefalsim.

The IDF Spokesman responded, “A Givati Brigade force is in Netiv Ha’Asaara for protection and guarding missions. Deploying the troops inside the community is done in accordance with operational considerations and situational assessments.”

According to the IDF, troops have been deployed between the Gaza border and the communities. In addition, undercover operations are in place protecting the area, the IDF said.

One of the seriously wounded people from the Hamas rocket attack on the Eshkol region at 6pm this evening…..died at the Beersheva Soroka hospital.

2 people were killed, 1 seriously wounded and 4 lightly wounded.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrapped up his quickie pre-election tour of Israel Thursday with an armored car escort of tunnels Hamas terrorists had dug with the aim of mass slaughter of Jews at a kibbutz near the Gaza border.

Cuomo has enjoyed five-star hospitality from Israel in appreciation of his solidarity trip. He said that Hamas is an enemy of New York just like it is of Israel.

Like most Americans who see Israel thought the lens of CNN or the photos in The New York Times showing IDF soldiers and dead Gazans, the governor and his delegation really didn’t understand the extent of the sophistication of the tunnels.

“Reading media accounts back home, you’d think these were a few yards of dirt you could crawl through,” said State Senate co-leader Dean Skelos. “These are sophisticated tunnels intended to kill.”

Terrorists intended to use the tunnel at Kibbutz Eini HaShlosha to kill and kidnap residents of the community. The delegation saw the electric wiring that lined the tunnel, built with cement, a “dual-purpose) material that the world has assumed was used for housing people and not for rockets and terrorists.

One of the tunnels that the delegation toured was 130 feet below ground, while another one was only 14 feet underground.

“You see those tunnels and you are reminded of how aggressive and tenacious the enemy is,” Cuomo said. “There are miles and miles of tunnels. These are concrete reinforced … The tunnels are an entirely new development and a frightening one.”

Cuomo met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and told him, “You are going through a very difficult time. That is precisely why we wanted to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel. We pray for peace. We stand with you in defense.”

The governor also toured Christian sites but not the Muslim Dome of the Rock, and explained that there simply was not enough time.

“You can’t make every gesture on every trip. We are using every available moment,” he said. “Everyone does have a role in peace and the Muslim community has … a role at the table.”

Even if really wanted to visit, it is not certain that police would have allowed him to do so considering the daily mobs of Muslims who harass and chase away Jews. A visit by non-Jew who solidly supports Israel would be waving a red flag at the Temple Mount.

On the other hand, it’s too bad he couldn’t see for himself what would happen if he dared to bring an Israel flag or carrying a Bible while ascending the Temple Mount.

JERUSALEM – Hamas had been preparing a murderous massive assault on Israeli civilian targets during the upcoming Jewish New Year holiday, Rosh Hashanah – according to anonymous sources in the Israeli security services cited by the Israeli daily Maariv.

Hamas had been planning a surprise attack where 200 fighters would have been dispatched through the dozens of tunnels dug by Hamas under the border from Gaza to Israel. The terror organization aimed to seize kibbutzim and other communities while killing and kidnapping Israeli civilians. In total, thousands of Hamas terrorists would have been swarming across Israel, wearing IDF uniforms, which would have further complicated an Israeli response. Reports further indicate that Hezbollah may have planned to join the attack as well, opening another front in the north.

The source stressed that the current unplanned war with Hamas inadvertently thwarted a catastrophic event on an apocalyptic magnitude such as the Yom Kippur War, which would have ‘brought the State of Israel to its knees.’ The destruction of these tunnels takes away from Hamas a strategic weapon it has been working on and investing in heavily for years according to the source.

Each tunnel has arteries, veins, offshoots as well as offshoots of offshoots designed in intricate and complex arrangements. As one Israeli spokesman said, “There are two Gazas, one above ground and one below ground: an underground terrorist city.”

Speaking to the CBC, a senior Israeli defense official said the Israeli military had considerable prior knowledge of Hamas weaponry and tunnels, but was still “surprised” by the extent of both when the current ground operation began. He added that the network had not been detected by aerial surveillance, because Hamas had solved the most obvious problem: how to hide the piles of sand removed from the tunnels. This, he said, was painstakingly taken away, a few bags at a time, and stored out of sight in buildings and underneath greenhouses.

The official said Hamas had diverted huge quantities of cement, imported for civilian construction, into the building of concrete-block walls and roofs for the tunnels. As an example, he cited a 1.7-kilometer tunnel discovered in February 2013 that Israeli engineers estimated would have required 500 tons of concrete – “enough to build a three-story hospital.”

Israel has discovered 31 tunnels so far, and has destroyed several of them by employing bulldozers, explosive and other methods. IDF excavation of the tunnels has resulted in the seizure of tons of Hamas supplies, as well as the discovery of plans for future operations.

Israeli soldiers have already frustrated several surprise assaults by Hamas through tunnels from Gaza into southern Israel. On July 21, ten Hamas terrorists emerged from a tunnel. They were immediately spotted and eliminated, but the clash cost the lives of two IDF soldiers.

Speaking with Tazpit News Agency, Minister Ya’acov Perry, a member of the Israeli Security Cabinet, commended the IDF for its outstanding achievements. “The IDF is working to uncover a network of underground tunnels that could have created unbearable terrorist attacks,” he said.

He further commended the IDF’s prior intelligence, which enabled these achievements. “I am sure that Israeli technology, which has provided us with the Iron Dome, will provide us with a solution for the terror tunnels as well.” He said various solutions were currently being examined. He further stressed that military capabilities and technological advantages were not enough. A comprehensive reality – changing diplomatic solution must be presented as well.

Writing for Gatestone, Lawrence Franklin says that the construction of network of tunnels used hundreds of tons of concrete that might otherwise have been used by the Palestinians for building homes, shopping malls, parks, schools, hospitals and libraries.