Bahaa Abu el-Atta was a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. He and his wife were killed by an Israeli airstrike on November 12, 2019. Aged 42, Abu el-Atta was undergoing what some described as a "heroic act" at the time of his assassination.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified the attack saying that Abu el-Atta was a "ticking bomb" who had been culpable for previous attacks against Israel. The Islamic Jihad responded a few hours after the attack by launching over 300 rockets into Israel and escalating the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.