“We are still in shock following Friday's terrorist attack on Al-Rawda village mosque,” Mohamed Salmi, a resident of Arish, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The deadliest terror attack in Egypt's modern history killed 305, 27 of them children, during Friday prayers at Al-Rawda village in Bir Al-Abd, 40km west of the North Sinai capital of Arish. “No one could have predicted such a massacre though the terrorists had threatened the locals of Al-Rawda days before the attack and ordered them to stop performing Sufi rituals,” said Salmi. He added that earlier in the week worshippers had been kidnapped from a nearby mosque, also known as a centre of Sufism, only to be released on the same day after being warned to stop practising their rituals. “It was Friday prayer and the Al-Rawda Mosque is on the Arish-Qantara road. Not only locals were praying but travellers and passers-by.” Mounir Al-Hawari, an English teacher who worked at Al-Rawda School for five years but now teaches in Saudi Arabia, mourned colleagues and students on his Facebook page. “Oh it is heartache... almost all the school is dead, my colleagues and my students at the school are all dead,” he wrote. He said that on hearing the news of the massacre he called his wife who still teaches in the village to ask about their colleagues and students. “I asked her about the school director Mohamed Selim, Mustafa Amer, the teacher of mathematics, Omar Suleiman, the school administrator and she said they were all martyred.” “I asked about Mahmoud Shiasha, a student, and she said he was martyred along with his father. I asked about Said Al-Said and she said he died while holding his four year-old child.” “Mounir, she said, all the school is dead.” “A whole village was killed. Some 500 people killed and injured. It is almost unimaginable. Of course the psychological impact is enormous, especially on those living here,” Sheikh Mussallam of the Tarabin tribe told the Weekly. Sinai expert Sheikh Abdel-Moneim Refaai told Dream TV channel that the village now comprises households of widows and in some cases children left with no other family members. The tragic attack has left people feeling “insecure in their homes, in the streets and even in the house of God when they are performing their prayers”. “Life in North Sinai is worse than living in a war zone where at least you know who and where the enemy is. Here we are facing an invisible enemy,” says Mussallam. “But the people of North Sinai are strong. We are strong enough not to be defeated by terrorism.” Al-Rawda Massacre A campaign in solidarity with the stricken villagers has been set up in Arish. Members are sending villagers cooked food as well as household items no longer available in local shops which have closed after their owners were killed. Since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi in 2013 Egypt has been fighting an Islamist insurgency led by the Islamic State's branch in North Sinai, formerly known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis. Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed. More recently the terrorist groups have expanded their operations to target civilians outside the peninsula, bombing Coptic churches in Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta. Friday's attack was the first to target Muslim civilians in North Sinai. On Sunday the Union of Sinai Tribes released a statement condemning the attack and calling on those who want to exact revenge to join tribal fighters in the village of Al-Borth, North Sinai. The union announced plans for “a major operation” in coordination with the army to combat terrorism. “We trust in God and in the army to eliminate terrorism in North Sinai. We are exhausted. We dream of the day we wake up to news that the army has declared North Sinai free of terrorists,” says Salmi. After any terrorist attack, Salmi says, North Sinai witnesses tightened security procedures. A half-day curfew has been in place since 2014, a state of emergency is in place and mobile coverage is sporadic. “We have got used to the situation and appreciate that the measures are necessary though they make everyday life difficult. The curfew within cities is from 11pm till 6am though in other areas and on roads it begins at 4pm. We have to have patience.”
