GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military killed two Palestinians in an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, one of them a militant who Israel said was responsible for recent rocket attacks against southern Israel.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the militant, Ahmed Zaanin, 21, was one of its members and the militant group vowed to retaliate for his death. Zaanin’s cousin, Mohammed Zaanin, was also killed in the missile strike on a white pickup truck parked outside their home in the town of Beit Hanoun, a relative, Tareq Zaanin, said by telephone.
It was the second time in recent days that Israel carried out an attack against a specific individual from the air, reviving a practice that had all but stopped since a Gaza cease-fire came into effect 14 months ago, ending eight days of fierce cross-border fighting. On Sunday, the Israeli military struck and wounded a man it said was an Islamic Jihad operative also responsible for recent rocket fire against southern Israel. A bystander, a boy of 12, was also hurt, according to Health Ministry officials in Gaza.
The fragile cease-fire has frayed on both sides in recent weeks. Israeli and Palestinian analysts said that Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza, weakened by an Egyptian military crackdown on its smuggling tunnels, among other things, has been turning a blind eye to smaller groups firing rockets against Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that Israel will take preventive action and retaliate swiftly and strongly against those who seek to harm it.
“We thwart terror attacks if we identify them while they are still being planned and we respond decisively against those who harm us,” Netanyahu said at a news conference Tuesday, hours before the latest attack. “If Hamas and the terror organizations have forgotten this message, they will learn it harshly very soon.”