Islamic Jihad senior leader Baha Abu al-Ata, eliminated early Tuesday morning, was followed by the Israel Security Agency (Shabak) for a significant amount of time before his elimination.
Shabak Head Nadav Argaman was in the command and control center in charge of the elimination, and closely followed the operation, together with senior IDF officials and other leaders of Israel's defense system.
Abu al-Ata tended to surround himself with uninvolved civilians, until 4:00 a.m., when an opportunity to eliminate him was identified.
An IAF missile attacked from the air the room the terrorist known as "the Commander of the Northern Brigade in Gaza" was in.
The IDF and Shabak do not intend to go back to targeted eliminations, and this was a standalone event approved by the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet.
Abu al-Ata commanded most of Islamic Jihad's activities in Gaza, and was considered to be a ticking time bomb. He was directly involved in terror attacks and attempts to harm Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. These attempts included rocket fire, sniper attacks, drone attacks, and others.
In addition, Abu al-Ata was responsible for the vast majority of Gaza terror attacks which occurred in the past year, including the fighting near Remembrance Day, firing at a Sderot festival on August 25, and the rocket attacks on Sderot and other Gaza border towns on November 1.
In recent days as well, Abu al-Ata advanced various types of terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, by training terror cells to infiltrate Israel and carry out sniper attacks, operate drones, and preparing to launch rockets able to reach various areas.