Hundreds of residents of the northern Sinai city of Bir al-Abd attended the funeral ceremony of nine family members who were killed in an unidentified shelling on their bus while returning from their olive farm.
The members of the al-Bayadeyya tribe were in Tuffaha village and on their way back from olive picking when a shell targeted their bus killing 9 members and injuring 6 others, tribal sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Meanwhile, President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi said, at a ceremony celebrating the 46th anniversary of Egypt’s victory in October War in 1973, that the operation in North Sinai was due to last for three months, however, imposing full control upon Sinai was a long-term process.
In the context, five army recruits were injured by shrapnel, after an explosive device planted by gunmen targeting an armored vehicle, south of Bir al-Abd.
Mustafa al-Bayadi, a farmer who was near the site of the explosion, told Asharq Al-Awsat that he left the farm at around 4 in the afternoon, and before reaching the international road, they heard a loud explosion.
They returned to the farm immediately after smoke rose from it, and found a shell had landed on a car injuring the passengers, who were transferred to the hospital.
A medical source at the health directorate of North Sinai told Asharq Al-Awsat that Bir al-Abd hospital received the injured in addition to the nine victims from Bayadeyya family.
He added that the injuries, according to the medical report, resulted from fragments of fission from an unknown source.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, while a security source in North Sinai told Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity, that an investigation was initiated by the police and the public prosecution.
Authorities boosted security measures in Bir al-Abd by setting fixed and mobile roadblocks all over the town and conducted security checks.