Egypt's health minister Ahmed Emad El-Dien (Al-Ahram)
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered late Sunday EGP 50,000 in "emergency relief" to be paid from North Sinai governorate's Support Fund to the family of a paramedic who was shot dead earlier in the day.
The paramedic, 38-year-old Reda El-Shahat Ibrahim, was transferring conscripts injured in an earlier explosion to the hospital in El-Shadaid when his ambulance was also attacked.
Health Minister Ahmed Emad El-Din Rady decided Sunday to grant the family of the victim additional compensation of EGP 250,000, state news agency MENA reported.
It is unclear whether the gunmen who targeted the ambulance were also behind the earlier bombing that injured the conscripts. No group has yet claimed responsibility for either attack.
The paramedic's funeral was held Sunday at his hometown in the Nile Delta's Sharqiya governorate.
Thousands of Egyptians attended the funeral, including the health minister, Sharqiya governor Khaled Said, North Sinai's governor, and head of the ambulance authority Ahmed El-Ansary, MENA reported.
The mourning crowd chanted slogans against terrorism such as “There is no God but Allah, terrorism is the enemy of Allah” and “Down with the murderers, down with the enemies of religion.”
The Egyptian army has been fighting an Islamist insurgency in parts of North Sinai for several years, resulting in the death of hundreds of militants and security forces.
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