On Thursday night, the Israeli military carried out a targeted assassination against an armed Palestinian cell with an aircraft in the occupied West Bank for the first time since 2006. 

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published a detailed breakdown of the assassination. 

The last time that Israel carried out a targeted strike was in August 2006, when an Apache helicopter attacked a house inside Jenin Refugee Camp to kill two Islamic Jihad activists, Muhammad Ateeq from Jenin, and Amjad Al-Ajmi from the town of Atil in Tulkarm, who were planning to carry out an attack. 

Al-Ajmi, who was wanted since May 2005, was in hiding in Jenin. He was recruited by the Islamic Jihad Movement to carry out an attack in Jerusalem, which was thwarted before he had the chance to carry it out. However, Al-Ajmi participated in planning other attacks and recruiting Palestinians to carry them out.

In Israel, they said at the time that this cell was responsible for numerous bombing attacks inside the country, including the attack in February 2005 in Tel Aviv, another in Tel Aviv Central Station in April 2006, attacks in Netanya in July and December 2005, and another in Hadera market in October 2005. 

After failing to reach the cell through a ground operation, the top brass decided to use an attack helicopter for the first time in a year-and-a-half.

After 17 years, Israel decided to employ a similar strategy - this time using a "Zik" drone to strike a joint cell consisting of three Islamic Jihad and Fatah activists who opened fire toward the Jalameh checkpoint, near Jenin, and were responsible for a string of similar shootings. 

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the attack was intended to "remove a threat" and was unrelated to the assassination of a senior official. The operation was carried out by Unit 5252, which specializes in attack drones.

The cell, Hagari said, had fired toward Jalameh crossing and were on their way to carry out another shooting attack. Weapons were found in their possession and their bodies were seized. 

In another report by Yedioth Ahronoth, analysts said that similar aerial attacks could occur again, with a focus on striking armed groups in Nablus and Jenin. The report distinguished between strikes on the Gaza Strip, which were based on prior intelligence, whereas Wednesday night's event was aimed at thwarting imminent danger. 

The report added that the move does not represent a return to the policy of targeted assassinations, and that near-nightly raids will likely continue as the main mechanism to fight armed Palestinian cells.