Young woman shot dead in North Sinai’s Sheikh Zuwayed

A young woman was shot dead inside her home in North Sinai’s Sheikh Zuwayed on Wednesday. The bullet came from an unknown source outside the house, according to the Khawater Sinawy (Thoughts of a Sinai Resident) Facebook page.

North Sinai residents live under unusual circumstances, as they are stuck in the middle of a conflict between the Armed Forces and the police on one side, and the Islamic State affiliate, Province of Sinai, on the other. The conflict has escalated following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi and the subsequent rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, on the back of popular protests against them on 30 June 2013.

Hadeel el-Riashi, only nineteen, had just returned from Cairo after completing the end of year exams for her second year in university. El-Riashi, who resides with her father when in Cairo, returned to Sheikh Zuwayed to visit her family, and was preparing for her wedding.

The father was unable to immediately reach his injured daughter because of the North Sinai curfew, in place since 2014, he said on his Facebook page.

Last February, the Khawater Sinawy facebook page had announced the killing of five people, including women and children, after a shell hit their home in Rafah. That same month, another young man was shot dead while waiting in a car queue near a checkpoint on the way to his home in Sheikh Zuwayed from Arish city. The other passenger in the car was wounded, but survived.

Civilians in Sinai often find themselves caught in the middle of the fight taking place in their governorate, and are vulnerable to attacks and shootings, according to a Mada Masr investigation published in 2015, titled “Sinai: States of fear”.