"Most recently, Yassin had been personally involved in directing and planning a terror attack which was to involve the kidnapping of Israelis in the Sinai Peninsula," the military said.

This marked the second Israeli assassination of a senior Army of Islam operative in November. On Nov. 3, the military killed Mohammed Nimnim, also identified as a senior aide to Dughmoush, a former Hamas and Fatah security official.

Yassin, a 35-year-old resident of Jabalya, was said to have worked with Nimnim in the abduction plot in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The military said the assassination of Nimnim, reported to have been coordinated with Egypt, did not suspend the Army of Islam plot to kidnap Israelis.

"It should be emphasized that despite the targeted strike on Nimnim, the cell continued operating with the intention to execute the terror attack," the military said.

Army of Islam was also said to have been involved in two rocket attacks from Sinai toward Israel and Jordan in 2010. In one strike, a Jordanian was killed and four others injured by a Katyusha rocket that landed in the southern city of Aqaba.

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