Visits by Church leaders have continued to the Copts injured in an attack by Daesh (also known as ISIL or ISIS) on Friday 26 May 2017. The attack left 28 dead, 10 of them children, and 13 injured. They were attacked while on buses headed to visit the Western Desert monastery of St Samuel the Confessor some 200km south of Cairo. Masked men who were heavily armed opened fire on Copts boarding four vehicles, when they refused to deny their faith. [https://en.wataninet.com/coptic-affairs-coptic-affairs/sectarian/killed-on-identity/20288/]
The injured are at the Nasser Institute in Cairo where they are receiving medical treatment. The Church leaders who visited them were received by Dr Sherif Wadie, consultant to the Health Minister Ahmed Emad Eddin Rady, who said the patients numbered 13; are still under medical supervision and are expected to leave hospital soon.
Coptic bishops have been visiting the families of the martyrs as well as the injured in hospital. Among the bishops was Anba Raphael, Secretary-General of the Coptic Orthodox Holy Synod and Bishop-General of Downtown Cairo churches; Anba Basilios, Abbott of St Samuel the Confessor’s; Anba Athanasius, Bishop of Beni Mazar and al-Bahnassa; Anba Aghathon, Bishop of Samalout; and Anba Ghabrial, Bishop of Beni Sweif.
Among the visitors was a delegation representing the World Council of Churches as well as representatives of the oriental apostolic Churches in Australia and New Zealand. They offered the injured comfort, moral and spiritual support, and prayer.