The 2013 Second Rafah Massacre

The attack on the Al-Arish–Rafah road

On August 19, 2013, a group of Egyptian security personnel travelling in North Sinai was intercepted near the Abu Tawila area on the Al-Arish–Rafah road. Contemporary reporting described the victims as Central Security Forces conscripts; English-language outlets alternated between the terms police conscripts, security personnel and soldiers. Twenty-five were killed and two others were reported injured.

The attack became widely known in Egyptian media as the Second Rafah Massacre. Because the case involved a large group of defendants and multiple terrorism-related allegations, this archive treats the August 2013 killings as one criminal episode rather than splitting the victims or later prosecutions into separate pages.

Adel Habara and the prosecution

Adel Mohamed Ibrahim, widely reported as Adel Habara or Habbara, was arrested in 2013 and became the principal public defendant associated with the killings. Prosecutors also charged numerous co-defendants with offenses connected to the Rafah attack and other alleged militant activity.

Early investigative reporting attributed statements and admissions to Habara. Those reports are not treated here as substitutes for a conviction. The archive relies on the later court history when describing criminal responsibility.

The first judgment and retrial

In December 2014, a Cairo criminal court sentenced Habara and six other defendants to death. Other defendants received life or 15-year prison terms, while several were acquitted. The judgment was appealable.

On June 13, 2015, Egypt's Court of Cassation accepted appeals in the case, revoked the earlier convictions and ordered a retrial. That ruling matters because the 2014 sentences cannot accurately be described as the final outcome.

At the retrial on November 14, 2015, the Giza Criminal Court again sentenced Habara and six others to death, imposed life imprisonment on three defendants, 15-year terms on 22 defendants and acquitted three, according to contemporaneous Egyptian reporting.

The final ruling against Habara

On December 10, 2016, Egypt's Court of Cassation rejected Habara's appeal against the death sentence tied to the 2013 Rafah killings. Contemporary court reporting described the ruling against him as final and no longer appealable through the ordinary process. Habara was executed on December 15, 2016.

The reviewed sources clearly establish Habara's final conviction and sentence. They do not, with the same clarity, establish the complete later appellate history of every one of the many co-defendants. For that reason, Crime by Region classifies this file as Partial / Principal Conviction Final rather than implying that every defendant's case reached an identical final disposition.

Timeline

August 19, 2013: twenty-five Central Security Forces conscripts are killed on the Al-Arish–Rafah road in North Sinai; two others are reported injured.

2013: Adel Habara is arrested and prosecuted with numerous co-defendants.

December 6, 2014: the first major judgment includes seven death sentences and a range of prison terms and acquittals.

June 13, 2015: the Court of Cassation revokes the earlier convictions and orders a retrial.

November 14, 2015: the retrial again results in seven death sentences, three life terms, 22 fifteen-year terms and three acquittals.

December 10, 2016: the Court of Cassation rejects Habara's appeal, making his death sentence final.

December 15, 2016: Habara is executed.

Current status

As of August 30, 2026, the reviewed record supports a final conviction for Adel Habara in connection with the 2013 killings. This page does not claim that every co-defendant's later appellate path has been independently verified to finality.