A 40-year-old Coptic Christian was found dead with a gunshot to the
neck, in the Egyptian town of Al-Arish, capital of Northern Sinai, on
Thursday, February 23. The body was found inside his home, which had been set on fire.
This is the third Coptic Christian killed in Al Arish in the past 48 hours, and the seventh murdered in the Sinai Peninsula in the last two weeks. on Wednesday, February 22 the authorities found the bullet-riddled body of a Christian about 65; his son died with him also, burned alive by jihadists.
On February 12, some masked men on a motorcycle gunned down a Christian veterinarian, while he was at the wheel of his own car.
In late January, a 35-year-old Christian officer was killed. In recent days, in a video posted on the Telegram messaging site, the Islamic State had promised to strike the Christian community, defined by jihadists as "the preferred prey".
Among these, the most serious was the suicide bombing on 11 December against a Coptic Orthodox church in Cairo, which caused 29 victims.