On 14 July 2017 Abdel-Rahman Shaaban, a former university student from the Nile Delta region, swam from a public beach to each of two resort hotel beaches at
Hurghada
Hurghada (; ar, الغردقة ', ) is a city in the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt. It is one of the country's main tourist centres located on the Red Sea coast.
Overview
Hurghada was founded in the early 20th century. For many decades it wa ...
on the Red Sea and stabbed five German, one Armenian and one Czech tourists, all women, killing two German women. The Czech tourist died on July 27. The perpetrator shouted that the Egyptian hotel personnel who gave pursuit after the stabbings at the second beach should "Stay back, I am not after Egyptians". Nevertheless, hotel personnel pursued and captured the attacker.
Background
In the similar
2016 Hurghada attack
On 8 January 2016, two suspected militants, armed with a melee weapon and a signal flare, allegedly arrived by sea and stormed the Bella Vista Hotel in the Red Sea city of Hurghada, Egypt, stabbing two foreign tourists from Austria and one from S ...
, foreign tourists were attacked on a beach at Hurghada by sympathizers of the
Islamic State in Syria
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) (, Romanization of Arabic, transliteration: ', "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" or "Levant Liberation Committee"), commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, is a Salafist jihadist, Sunni Islamist politic ...
.
The attacks at this
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
beach resort are part of a long series of attacks and threats that have crippled the Egyptian tourist trade, a vital part of the Egyptian economy.
Attack
On 14 July 2017 a lone male swam from a public beach to the beach of a Zahabia Hotel tourist resort on the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
in Hurghada, Egypt and attacked seven foreign tourists, identified as five Germans, a Czech and an Armenian. Two of the German women were killed. The perpetrator then swam to nearby El Palacio beach resort hotel where he attacked two more German women.
The Czech woman died on 27 July in a hospital in Cairo due to her severe injuries.
[''The stabbed Czech woman died in Egypt''](_blank)
novinky.cz, 27 July 2017
The perpetrator, a man described as in his 20s wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, shouted in Arabic that he was not attacking Egyptians and was heard to shout "you infidels" as he stabbed his victims on the second beach.
[''Two tourists stabbed to death in beach attack at Egyptian resort''](_blank)
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 14 July 2017
Perpetrator
The attacker, 29-year-old Abdel-Rahman Shaaban, spoke to his victims in fluent German before stabbing them. He is from Kafr el-Sheikh province in the Nile Delta, and a graduate of the local branch campus of the
Al-Azhar University
, image = جامعة_الأزهر_بالقاهرة.jpg
, image_size = 250
, caption = Al-Azhar University portal
, motto =
, established =
*970/972 first foundat ...
, which has been accused of doctrinal rigidity and political extremism.
Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...
reports that according to "a source close to the investigation perpetrator "communicated with
he self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (IS) groupvia internet and was given the task of attacking foreign tourists on Hurghada beaches" by the extremist militia."
Reactions
On 28 July 2017, the Czech Republic asked Egypt to announce more details of what happened in the attack and to consider compensating the victims families.
See also
*
Terrorism in Egypt
Terrorism in Egypt in the 20th and 21st centuries has targeted the Egyptian government officials, Egyptian police and Egyptian army members, tourists, Sufi Mosques and the Christian minority. Many attacks have been linked to Islamic extre ...
*
Islamic terrorism
Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.
Incidents and fatalities f ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurghada attack
Attacks on hotels in Africa
Attacks on tourists
Hurghada
Islamic terrorist incidents in 2017
July 2017 crimes in Africa
July 2017 events in Egypt
Red Sea Governorate
Sinai insurgency
Terrorist incidents in Egypt in 2017
Stabbing attacks in 2017
Knife attacks
Terrorist incidents involving knife attacks