State of emergency in Egypt
Palm Sunday attacks kill 45, increase fear Daesh is shifting focus to Christian minority
CAIRO— Egyptian Christians were burying their dead Monday after Daesh suicide bombers killed at least 45 people in attacks on Palm Sunday services in two cities, as a state of emergency went into effect amid fears of further violence.
Women wailed as caskets marked with the word “martyr” were brought into the St. Mina monastery on the outskirts of Alexandria. Coptic priests, boy scouts, and mourners carrying flowers joined a procession into the church, the pace set by a beat of snare drums.
At least 17 people were killed at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria, the historic seat of Christendom in Egypt. Another suicide attack killed at least 28 people inside St. George’s Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, the Health Ministry said. Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL, claimed both bombings.
Rev. Danial Maher, of the Tanta church, lost his 23-year-old son, Beshoy, who was among six deacons killed in the attack. He recalled watching his son wearing white vestments and singing at the service. “He was like an angel,” he said.
Pictures of the elder Maher, sitting in bloodstained vestments after the attack, were widely circulated online. He buried his son late Sunday.
The attacks led President AbdelFattah el-Sissi to declare a state of emergency, amid fears that Daesh militants, who have been battling security forces in the Sinai Peninsula for years, are shifting their focus to Egypt’s Coptic minority, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. In December, a massive church bombing killed 30 people in Cairo, and a series of killings in the Sinai have sent hundreds fleeing.
The rising violence has undermined the Egyptian government’s claim to being a bulwark against extremism in a chaotic region as it pursues closer ties with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The parliament has seven days to approve or reject the state of emergency, but its approval is seen as a foregone conclusion since the legis- lature is packed with el-Sissi’s supporters. The cabinet declared that it had gone into effect Monday.
In theory, it would allow for arrests without warrants, swifter prosecution of suspects and special courts. But authorities have already been waging a heavy crackdown on dissent for years, so it was unclear if anything would change.
“We won’t see a change on the ground, as this decision wasn’t taken to give more powers or tighten control,” said political analyst Yasser Abdel-Aziz. “It’s a purely political decision that is meant to have a psychological impact.”
The Palm Sunday attacks, the single deadliest day for Egypt’s Christians in decades, rattled the community and prompted messages of support from abroad. Israel meanwhile closed its Taba border crossing to Egypt after its anti-terrorism office warned of an “imminent” militant attack there. Soon after the announcement, sirens wailed in southern Israel alerting residents to an attack. The military said a rocket fired from Sinai struck a greenhouse but caused no injuries. Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack.