At least three people were killed after militants attacked a bus carrying workers employed at a cement factory; authorities said the attack intended to target the police. At least one was killed in an attack by unidentified gunmen on a security facility that was under construction. A senior Hamas official complained that Egypt’s efforts to target militants in the Sinai are an anti-Hamas campaign. An NGO charged that the government has failed to properly protect the Coptic community, which has faced increasing attacks over recent weeks. An Islamist cleric who was previously given an 11-year suspended sentence for burning Bibles was sentenced in a separate case for offending Christianity. A Salafi leader said his group did not join pro-Morsi protests because Morsi had failed to apply sharia. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights accused the Muslim Brotherhood of being behind recent events in the Sinai.
