A Coptic citizen was killed in Al-Arish on Saturday night by 3 terrorist militants when he was walking in Thursday “elKhamis” market in the city.
Bassem Shehata, 27, was one of Copts displaced from El Arish in February 2017, along with hundreds of families who fled the city after the targeting and killing of a number of Copts.
Bassem and his family were among the families settled in Ismailia in future city housing provided by the government, but he and his older brother Osama did not find a job to help them to provide for their families. They moved to Cairo and the church provided them an apartment in Ezbet elNakhl but the problem remained in having a job. Bassem and his brother decided to return to Al-Arish six months ago to reopen their shop, thinking that the situation became stable and after a period of time they returned their mother and children to settle in Al-Arish and they have a good relationship with their neighbors and Bassem was a kind and lovable person.
On the evening of January 13, Basem and his brother were walking after work in al-Khamis market in 6th of October City, They were on their way home with their friends, one of them is Muslim and Three young men carrying two automatic weapons and a pistol asked them to stop, he and his brother thought they were policemen as they were unmasked. They approached and asked to see “Bassem” rest and when they saw the tattooed cross they asked him about his religion, he told them he is christian and asked them to leave his brother as he has children so they killed Bassem and checked his brother rest and when they didn’t find a cross they left him.
The gunmen were walking in the street without any objection, and their faces were shown to everyone.
A friend of Bassem heard the news of his death and called on his phone. One of the terrorists answered and said to him: “We are Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, death to Christians and you are next”.
