At 7am on 18 April 1996, fourIslamists carried out amass shooting against a group of 88Greektourists outside the Europa Hotel inCairo,Egypt.[1][2] Eighteen people were killed: 17 Greek tourists and oneEgyptian.[1] The victims were outside the hotel, about to board a bus toAlexandria.[1]Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that they thought the tourists wereIsraelis.[1][3][4]
In the attack’s immediate aftermath, Egyptian security forces launched a sweeping operation to identify and apprehend the perpetrators. According toAmnesty International, the fourIslamist gunmen were later located and killed by security forces inUpper Egypt, amid a larger crackdown on militants believed to be responsible for targeting tourists in retaliation forIsraeli actions in Lebanon.[3]
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.[3][5][6] Thetourism sector was further destabilized later in 1997 by theLuxor massacre, another attack attributed toal-Jama’a al-Islamiyya that killed 62 people, most tourists.[1][3][4][7]