ISMAILIA, Egypt (AP) — After Islamic militants barged into his uncle’s house, shot him and his son dead, then looted the place and set it on fire, Said Sameh Adel Fawzy knew it was time to leave.

The 35-year-old Christian, who owns a plumbing supply business in Egypt’s troubled northern Sinai town of el-Arish, packed up a few belongings and brought his family to the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, joining hundreds of Christians fleeing a spate of sectarian killings last week.

“My cousin went to open the door after he heard knocking,” Fawzy said, speaking from a youth hostel where authorities were putting up dozens of families who fled the town. “Masked extremists, terrorists with a pistol, took him inside and shot him in the head,” then dragged his screaming mother out to the street half-dressed and killed her husband. The woman, still in shock after the Tuesday night slayings, sat nearby.

“They’re thirsty for the blood of any Christian,” said Wafaa Fawzy, the sister-in-law of Saad Hana, the man who was killed along with his son. “They were pretty clear when they said they won’t leave any Christian in peace. They want an Islamic state.”

A truck loaded with goods arrives for Christian families who fled el-Arish at the Evangelical Church in Ismailia, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017. Egyptian Christians fearing attacks by Islamic State militants are fleeing the volatile northern part of the Sinai Peninsula for a fourth day, after a string of sectarian killings there sent hundreds fleeing and raised accusations the government is failing to protect the minority. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

The killings, two of seven brutal slayings in recent weeks, come after a devastating IS suicide bombing at a Cairo church in December that killed nearly 30 people. The violence poses a fresh challenge to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government to put down an IS-led insurgency in northern Sinai and prevent spillover that at times has reached the mainland.

The group’s local affiliate recently vowed to step up a wave of attacks on the embattled Christian minority, pointing to a shift in tactics toward targeting Christians and their holy sites, which are less protected than the military and police installations that are their usual targets.

Northern Sinai has for years been the epicenter of an insurgency by Islamic militants, and the area’s few Christians have slowly been trickling out. But departures surged after suspected militants again gunned down a Christian man in front of his family two days after Fawzy’s uncle and cousin were killed, stoking panic among Christians.

Egyptian Christian Ezzat Yaacoub Ishak, who fled el-Arish in northern Sinai two days ago due to fighting, sits in his newly rented apartment, in Ismailia, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017. Egyptian Christians fearing attacks by Islamic State militants are fleeing the volatile northern part of the Sinai Peninsula for a fourth day, after a string of sectarian killings there sent hundreds fleeing and raised accusations the government is failing to protect the minority. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. But Egypt’s ISIL affiliate is based in north Sinai and in December carried out a suicide bombing against a Cairo church. The Cairo church bombing and the recent killings point to a shift in ISIL’s tactics in Egypt, with the group now also attacking Christian targets that are less protected than military installations.

At least 90 Coptic families have reached the Ismailiya governorate [Ahmed Aboulenein/Reuters]

Before Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, about 5,000 Christians lived in northern Sinai, but the number has since dwindled to fewer than 1,000, say priests and residents. Egypt does not keep official statistics on the number of Christians in cities or across the country.

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