In a statement, the ministry said the move comes as part of continued efforts to pursue members of the Hasm movement involved in preparing a plot to harm state capabilities.
The plot included directing terrorists Ahmed Mohamed Abdel Razek Ahmed Ghoneim and Ihab Abdel Latif Mohamed Abdel Qader to carry out a series of hostile operations targeting security and economic facilities across the country.
The ministry referred to earlier security efforts on 7 July, 2025, when the hideout of the two terrorists in Ard El-Lewa, Giza, was raided, resulting in an exchange of fire that led to their deaths, the martyrdom of a civilian, engineer Mostafa Anwar Afifi, and the injury of a police officer.
According to the ministry, Abdel Wanis had received multiple sentences in terrorism-related cases, including life imprisonment for attempting to target the presidential aircraft in 2022, 15 years in the 2015 Helwan Brigades case, and 10 years in the 2018 Hasm/2 and Liwa al-Thawra case.
Terrorism record
According to the Ministry of Interior, Abdel Wanis was involved in several terrorist operations. He targeted several prominent figures, including the attempted assassination of Counselor Nagy Shehata in 2015.
He was also involved in the assassinations of Major General Adel Ragaey outside his home in Obour City in October 2016 and Lieutenant Colonel Maged Abdel Razek in April 2019.
In August 2016, Abdel Wanis attacked the Agizi checkpoint in Monufia, killing three and injuring four. In April 2017, he killed two and injured 17 police personnel after bombing a police training centre in Tanta, Gharbia.
Additionally, the ministry stated that Abdel Wanis was involved in a car bombing outside the National Cancer Institute at the Kasr El-Aini in Cairo in August 2019, which killed 20 and injured 47.
Abdel Wanis also communicated with leaders of the Al-Mourabitoun group, founded by the executed terrorist Hesham Ashmawy.
In 2016, the statement continued, Abdel Wanis infiltrated a neighbouring country on instructions from fugitive terrorist Yahya El-Sayed Ibrahim Mohamed Moussa, where he established a training camp for members of the movement on the use of anti-aircraft missiles, heavy weapons, and explosives.
In 2019, he planned to carry out several terrorist operations within Egypt, alongside several fugitive Hasm leaders abroad, including Yahya Moussa, Mohamed Rafiq Ibrahim Mannaa, Alaa Ali Ali El-Samahi, and Mohamed Abdel Hafeez Abdallah Abdel Hafeez. These planned operations involved directing trained members to prepare several car bombs.
In 2025, Abdel Wanis instructed terrorists Mahmoud Shehta Ali El-Gedd and Mostafa Ahmed Mohamed Abdel Wahab, who were based abroad, to return to Egypt to carry out hostile operations. However, security forces, who had been monitoring them, arrested the two before they could carry out any operations.
According to the Ministryof Interior, Abdel Wanis and other leaders of the movement, most notably Yahya Moussa and Reda Fahmy Mohamed Khalil, also established a media platform called Midan Foundation to spread fake news, false and misleading information, and rumours about the country’s domestic affairs to incite citizens—especially youth—to resort to violence against the state, thus paving the way for the terrorist group’s return to the political scene.
According to the ministry, Abdel Wanis confessed to his activities with the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore, the ministry added, legal procedures have been completed, with the Supreme State Security Prosecution taking over the investigation.
The ministry affirmed it will continue to firmly confront the plans of the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters that seek to undermine the country’s security and stability.
Hasm (Determination), short for Harakat Sawa’d Misr (Arms of Egypt Movement), emerged in 2016 and claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks targeting security forces, judges, and government officials.
The movement, designated as a terrorist organization by Egyptian authorities in 2017, has been linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, which Egyptian authorities have accused of providing direction and logistical support for its operations.
In 2022, Egyptian authorities arrested Hasm founder Hossam Menoufi after his flight from Sudan to Turkey made an emergency landing in Luxor.
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