New curfew on July 14 in certain places in North Sinai

CAIRO – 3 July 2018: Egypt’s government announced that it will impose a new curfew in a few places in the North Sinai cities of Arish and Rafah starting July 14, according to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.

Among the places where the curfew will be imposed are Tal Rafah, Awja and Gabal al-Halal. The new governmental decree stated that the curfew will last for 11 hours every day, from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m. of the following day.

On June 24, the Parliament, headed by Ali Abdel Aal, approved extending the state of emergency across the country for three months starting from July 14. This is the fourth time the state of emergency has been extended, which was first declared in April after twin church bombings in Tanta and Alexandria killed 40 people.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the two explosions. Since then, Egypt has adopted amendments to the Criminal Procedures Act, which focused on improving some regulations to allow courts to speedily judge and issue verdicts on terrorism-related cases.

In October 2017, Ihab el-Kholy, a member of the House of Representatives’ Legislation Committee, defended the decision to extend the state of emergency for three more months, saying that it supports the fight against terrorists, not citizens.

“The state of emergency was not extended to bother normal citizens,” Kholy told TV program “90 Minutes", adding that the law will allow security apparatuses to go through its fight against terrorism.

Kholy affirmed that citizens in Egypt are subject to civil laws besides the Emergency Law, pointing to how Egypt is defending humanity by its war against terrorism, which calls for stricter measures.

On Friday October 22, 2017 security officers were killed in clashes with militants in Giza-Al Wahat Road in the Western Desert.

Additional reporting by Walaa Ali