Two militants who allegedly had been plotting terror attacks were killed in an exchange of gunfire with security forces in the Jalbana area of North Sinai June 30. The Egyptian news reports quoted a statement by the Interior Ministry that weapons and ammunition were seized during a police raid that “thwarted terrorist attacks planned to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the June 30 Revolution.”

The ongoing North Sinai war on terrorism has inflicted a heavy toll on the military and police — the primary targets of the Islamic State-affiliated insurgency in Sinai. It has also claimed the lives of dozens of civilians as the violence spilled over from Sinai into the rest of the country. News of the deaths was both a reminder of the authorities' failure so far to restore security and stability (despite President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's repeated promises to end the unrest) and a further example of the extrajudicial killings and other rights abuses recurrent since Sisi decreed a sweeping anti-terrorism law in mid-2015. Shielding the military and police from prosecution for disproportionate use of force, the law has allowed security forces to escape accountability for such actions.

Commemorating the anniversary of the military-backed protests that overthrew Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, on July 3, 2013, the country's largely pro-government media turned a blind eye to such malpractices. Instead, jingoistic songs glorifying Sisi and the "glorious revolution" that brought him to power blared from car radios. Public service messages aired incessantly on Egyptian TV channels throughout the day, highlighting Sisi's accomplishments while vilifying the "terrorist" Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi, who led the military coup that overthrew Morsi, has since overseen a brutal crackdown on the Islamic group's leaders, members and sympathizers. Thousands of opposition figures have been detained on charges of belonging to the terrorist group. Many of them have been tortured, killed or forcibly disappeared.

Amr Magdi, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, believes the Sisi regime started off "on a wrong footing" and has since been unable to backtrack. He cites the Rabaa Massacre that saw nearly 1,000 pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters killed by security forces in a single day of violence on Aug. 14, 2013. “Committing such a horrific atrocity was telling of the nature of the regime the popular uprising had helped bring to power," Magdi told Al-Monitor. "Having committed such excesses from the beginning made it hard for the regime to retreat as they felt their personal safety was at stake."