1996 Cairo shooting
{{Campaignbox Terrorism in Egypt}}
At 7am on 18 April 1996, four Islamists carried out a mass shooting against a group of 88 Greek tourists outside the Europa Hotel in Cairo, Egypt.[https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/18/newsid_2525000/2525335.stm Greek tourists killed by Egyptian gunmen]{{cite web |title=GUNMEN IN EGYPT KILL 18 IN ATTACK AT TOURIST HOTEL (Published 1996) |website=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308193451/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/19/world/gunmen-in-egypt-kill-18-in-attack-at-tourist-hotel.html |archive-date=2021-03-08 |url-status=live |url=https://nytimes.com/1996/04/19/world/gunmen-in-egypt-kill-18-in-attack-at-tourist-hotel.html}} Eighteen people were killed: 17 Greek tourists and one Egyptian. The victims were outside the hotel, about to board a bus to Alexandria. Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that they thought the tourists were Israelis.{{Cite web |title=EGYPT - Human rights abuses by armed groups |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mde120221998en.pdf}}{{Cite web |title=Foreign Terrorist Organizations |url=https://irp.fas.org/crs/RL32223.pdf}}
Aftermath
In the attack’s immediate aftermath, Egyptian security forces launched a sweeping operation to identify and apprehend the perpetrators. According to Amnesty International, the four Islamist gunmen were later located and killed by security forces in Upper Egypt, amid a larger crackdown on militants believed to be responsible for targeting tourists in retaliation for Israeli actions in Lebanon.
This incident intensified pressure on the Egyptian government to protect its tourism industry, a vital sector already weakened by a series of attacks throughout the early 1990s; including more than 30 assaults on tourist buses, trains, and cruisers between 1992 and early 1996 that resulted in around a dozen deaths.{{Cite news |last=Gellman |first=Barton |date=1996-04-19 |title=GREEK TOURISTS GUNNED DOWN AT CAIRO HOTEL |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/19/greek-tourists-gunned-down-at-cairo-hotel/e7173d5f-5943-4cd8-b090-9f624f22f9c2/ |access-date=2025-06-10 |work=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}{{Cite web |last=PANAGOPOULOS |first=Stylianos |title=Parliamentary question {{!}} Terrorist attack on Greek tourists in Cairo {{!}} P-1103/1996 {{!}} European Parliament |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/P-4-1996-1103_EN.html |access-date=2025-06-10 |website=www.europarl.europa.eu |language=en}} The tourism sector was further destabilized later in 1997 by the Luxor massacre, another attack attributed to al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya that killed 62 people, most tourists.{{Cite web |title=Luxor massacre {{!}} EBSCO Research Starters |url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/politics-and-government/luxor-massacre |access-date=2025-06-10 |website=www.ebsco.com |language=en}}
See also
References
External links
- {{Cite web |date=2020-04-18 |title=On This Day: 17 Greek tourists tragically lost their lives in the 1996 Cairo shooting |url=https://greekherald.com.au/culture/history/on-this-day-17-greek-tourists-tragically-lost-their-lives-in-the-1996-cairo-shooting/ |website=The Greek Herald}}
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Category:1996 mass shootings in Africa
Category:1996 murders in Egypt
Category:20th-century mass murder in Egypt
Category:Islamic terrorist incidents in 1996
Category:Mass shootings in Egypt
Category:Terrorist incidents in Egypt in 1996
Category:Attacks on tourists in Egypt