IDF Zikim attack. Photo: screenshot.

After the IDF’s Protective Edge (2014) and Pillar of Defense (2012) operations to thwart Gaza rocket fire, Hamas, the terror group which rules the coastal enclave, has set up observer posts to monitor Israeli army activity along its border with the Jewish state, Israel’s Ch. 2 News reported Thursday.

On Wednesday, army tanks and aircraft killed a senior commander of the unit, Taysir Samri, and wounded two others after a Hamas sniper shot and wounded a soldier on a patrol along the southern Gaza border fence.

“We will respond forcefully every time there will be an attempt to disrupt the quiet that was achieved after Operation Protective Edge,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in reaction to the attack.

At the beginning of August, during the height of Protective Edge, the IDF arrested dozens of Hamas fighters, who were intensively questioned by Shin Bet and police interrogators.

Among the revelations from the detainees was that Hamas has set up land and sea commando and sabotage units similar to the IDF’s elite, and combat engineering units of the Golani and Givati brigades.

The terrorists also told interrogators that Hamas has established dozens of lookout posts, meant to monitor the activities of army units along the Gaza Strip and within it, with a major goal to sound an alarm when an IDF invasion of Gaza is imminent.

“At first, Hamas only referred to the units as ‘patrols,’ one Hamas source said. In the past two years, however, the units were upgraded to more professional standards, and were equipped with sophisticated devices to track the IDF forces.”

Investigators found that “Each region has a commander who is in charge of a neighborhood in Gaza and of photography and documentation of any forces that try to enter Gaza. They have fighters who sit and follow everything, so as to not be surprised.”

During this summer’s Operation Protective Edge, IDF’s observer units at Zikim on the coast next to northern Gaza were responsible for spotting and coordinating forces to foil two near-identical attempted attacks on July 8th and on July 9th.

Ground troops, helicopters and offshore patrol craft quickly engaged the terror squads from the moment they tried to reach the shore, and closed on them before they could reach populated areas.

“Hamas has invested a lot of money in this unit so as not to be surprised by the IDF,” one of the terrorists said during questioning. “It’s important for them not to repeat the mistakes made in Protective Edge and Defensive Shield.”

Israelis living in close proximity to the roughly 60 kilometer long enclave have also noted the deployment of surveillance balloons aimed at Israeli areas, which the IDF first noted in 2013.

On Dec. 14th, The Israeli army scrambled aircraft to track an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Hamas launched over the coastal enclave to celebrate the terror group’s 27th anniversary.

IDF officials were concerned that the motorized drone, launched during a military parade in Gaza City, could carry out surveillance or attack missions against Israeli targets.

Watch combined IDF footage of the observer units coordinating between air, sea, and ground forces to neutralize the terrorists in the Zikim raids: