Three civilians killed in Sinai in Egyptian airstrike

Two women and a child were killed on Friday morning in an Egyptian airstrike on civilian homes in a Sinai village near Rafah, local sources have revealed.

The child and his mother were killed instantly, locals told al-Araby al-Jadeed's Arabic service. An elderly woman also died in her home, due to the absence of civil defence and ambulances in the area.

Since October 2014, the Egyptian government has bulldozed thousands of homes around Rafah to make way for a "buffer zone" along the Gaza border, an act criticised by many human rights groups.

In May, the Egyptian Observatory for Rights and Freedoms issued a report entitled Human rights violence in Sinai about the state of emergency imposed in the region. It counted 681 extra-judicial executions of accused militants, 1,481 arbitrary arrests and the displacement of 21,392 people. 

Since Egypt launched its latest operation against armed groups in Sinai, military figures claimed to have killed hundreds of militants. However, local sources dispute this, saying the number is closer to dozens.