Displaying items by tag: AlArish

‘Are you a Christian?’ These were the last words 45-year-old Medhat Saad Hakim heard before he was shot in the head on his doorstep last month. The gunmen dragged Hakim's screaming mother outside the house before going back inside and shooting his father dead. The attackers then looted the house before torching it. Medhat Saad and Saad Hakim are the sixth and seventh Christians killed in the town of Al-Arish in a month. All are targeted by Al Wilayat Sinai, a local affiliate of IS waging a low-level insurgency on the peninsula. The two killings, followed by another one 48 hours later, prompted Christians to flee the coastal town; over 500 have arrived in Ismailia, 200 km away, since 21 February. Those who cannot leave have sent their children away to relatives outside Sinai. Terrorists have threatened taxi and minibus drivers with death if they take fleeing Christians from Al-Arish.