CAIRO — When Hala Fawzi, a resident of the Nile island of al-Warraq, left home to buy food, she never expected that she would return to find her home reduced to a pile of rubble. “My four children were inside the house. The neighbors saved them before security forces began the demolitions,” she said.
In the early hours of July 16, the residents of the island woke up to see police and army forces implementing a government decision to remove what the state described as unlicensed buildings and illegal use of state-owned land.