The air force and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) targeted a senior member
of the al-Qaida-affiliated Army of Islam on Wednesday, in an aerial strike on
his vehicle in Gaza City.
Islam Yassin, 35, from Jabalya in the northern
Gaza Strip was killed in the strike along with his brother Muhammad, and four
people were lightly wounded, a Palestinian source in Gaza said.
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Yassin
was planning to kidnap Israelis vacationing in Sinai, the IDF Spokesman’s Office
said in a statement.
According to the IDF, Yassin had “acted as the
right-hand man and aide” to the head of the Army of Islam, Memtaz
Dormush.
On November 11, the Counter-Terrorism Bureau released an urgent
warning calling on all Israelis in Sinai to return to Israel immediately, due to
intelligence of a kidnap plot.
Wednesday’s attack was the second in Gaza
within a month in which a member of the global jihadi organization was targeted
to thwart the Sinai plot.
On November 3, Muhammad Jamal Faras Nemnan was
killed when his car exploded in Gaza. The IDF said Nemnan, also a member of the
Army of Islam, was killed “due to his involvement in this [the Sinai kidnapping
plot] attack.”