[AlAhram] Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church issued a statement on Friday condemning "the repeated terrorist attacks targeting Egyptian Christians in North Sinai," which the Church says are aimed at harming national unity and the united front against terrorism.On Thursday, Ahram Arabic news website reported the killing of a Christian Egyptian by unknown gunnies on the roof of his house in North Sinai's El-Arish, the eighth report attack on Copts in two weeks.
The Church has expressed its condolences over the attacks, stressing that it is in continuous contact with local officials as well as the bishop of North Sinai in order to provide support and contain the consequences of the attacks.
In the past few days, churches in Ismailia city have received Coptic families who escaped El-Arish for fear of being targeted.
| The Times of Israel adds a good deal of flesh to those bare bones: |
The snuffies stormed the home of Kamel Youssef, a plumber, on Thursday and shot him to death in front of his wife and children in the town of el-Arish, said two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
because they were not authorized to talk to news hounds. Militants then kidnapped and stabbed his daughter before dumping her body near a cop shoppe, a priest in the city said. It wasn’t immediately possible to confirm his account.
A spate of killings by suspected snuffies have spread fears among the Coptic community in el-Arish as families left their homes after reportedly receiving threats on their cellphones.
A day before Youssef’s killings, snuffies killed a Coptic Christian man and burned his son alive, then dumped their bodies on a roadside in el-Arish. Three others Christians in Sinai were killed earlier, either in drive-by shooting or with snuffies storming their homes and shops.
The priest told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that he blamed lax security and that he himself has left the city for fear of being killed. He said that some 1,000 other Christians have also left.
"You feel like this is all meant to force us to leave our homes," he said. "We became like refugees."
Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of Egypt’s population, have increasingly come under attack since the military’s overthrow of elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. A top target of Islamic
The priest, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said a total of 30 Christians -- including Coptic soldiers -- have been killed since then, including two priests.
Since then, there have been waves of Christian displacement. The first one was from the town of Rafah when the only church, The Holy Family, was looted, torched and destroyed in several Death Eater attacks. The church is built on the site where Christians believe the Holy Family first stopped to rest after crossing into Egypt. Subsequent waves followed Death Eaters’ threats in past years. According to the priest, less than 1,000 remain.
Since 2013, Islamic snuffies have carried out several suicide kabooms across Egypt, mainly against the police and the army. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
in December, an IS-affiliated jacket wallah went
kaboom!inside a landmark Cairo church, killing around 30 worshippers, mostly women.
That attack marked a turn in the Sunni Death Eater group’s strategy as Christians became its top targets. The