Egyptian civilians killed and injured in Sinai shelling

Egyptian civilians were killed and injured on Saturday evening after an artillery shell struck several homes in North Sinai Governorate.  

A woman was killed and five others, including three children, were injured after artillery shells fired by the army hit a home in the southern town of Sheikh Zuwaid.

Sources reported that 40-year-old Fayza Salem Sweilem was killed while Mohammed Jaber, 50, Mubrarak Mubrakak, 58, Oumayma Rashid, 15, and her young brothers four-year-old Rehab, and five-year-old Hamza were injured.  

The body of Sweilem and the injured were transferred to al-Arish General Hospital.

In another incident, another civilian Obaid Salem Obeid, 35, was killed after the Egyptian army shelled a house in the village east of the city of al-Arish.  

Local sources told The New Arab that an artillery shell landed on his house on Thursday evening, killing him instantly.

Earlier this week, two children were killed and three others injured in Egypt's restive North Sinai, when a military shell hit their family home during the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.  

Egypt is battling an insurgency that gained pace after its military overthrew President Mohammad Morsi from the now banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Some Sinai militant groups pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group leadership based in Syria and Iraq in November 2014.

Meanwhile, human rights groups have accused the Egyptian military of committing numerous abuses in counter-insurgency operations against the group in Sinai.

In March, the army said it killed at least 60 Islamic State militants in an air raid on the group's positions in North Sinai.

The military has also razed the homes belonging to thousands of families in the Rafah area – along the border with the Gaza Strip – in a bid to crack down on smuggling through the area's notorious tunnels.