JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli military airplanes fired on and killed a man identified as Palestinian terrorist in northern Gaza.

Ahmad Za’anin, 22, and another passenger were killed when rockets fired early Wednesday morning from an Israeli plane struck the car they were sitting in near Beit Hanoun in Gaza.

Za’anin was a key Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine operative in Gaza “who has actively planned to launch rockets at Israeli communities in the south of Israel,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. The mission was carried out in conjunction with Israel’s Shin Bet security service.

Za’anin was responsible for the rockets fired on southern Israel at the end of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s funeral on Jan.15, according to the IDF.

He formerly was a terrorist operative for Islamic Jihad in Gaza, where he also directed rocket attacks against southern Israel.

Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, vowed revenge for Israel’s targeted killing. “His blood was not spilled in vain. His death will follow the occupier wherever it goes,” the group wrote on its website, vowing to free all of “Palestine.”

“To tolerate Gaza rocket attacks would be to succumb to extremist aggression. It is the IDF’s moral obligation and right to defend its soldiers and civilians from the deadly actions and intentions of terrorists of the likes of Za’anin,” said IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner in a statement.

Hours earlier, on Tuesday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly warned Gaza terror leaders that Israel would strike at terrorists whenever it deems necessary.

“We have a very clear policy. We prevent terror attacks when we identify them in the making, and we respond forcefully against whoever hurts us,” Netanyahu said during a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.