A father, mother and their three children were killed Thursday night when a shelling of unknown origin hit their house in Egypt’s troubled North Sinai, state news agency MENA reported.
The shelling occurred in El-Salam district in Rafah, one of the hotspots in confrontations between the army and a decade-long Islamist militant insurgency that spiked in the past two years.
The couple’s children were 18, 17 and five years old.
An 18-year-old neighbour was also injured in the shelling and transferred to a nearby hospital.
Islamist militants based in parts of North Sinai governorate have primary targeted and killed hundreds of members of Egypt's security forces.
Although civilians have not been known to be targets in these attacks, they have at times been caught in the crossfire.
Authorities have reported over the past years that hundreds of militants have been killed in army campaigns in the governorate.
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, who pledged allegiance to the ISIS militant group in November 2014, has claimed responsibility for most of the deadly attacks to take place in North Sinai.
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