On 14 July 2017 Abdel-Rahman Shaaban, a former university student from the Nile Delta region, swam from a public beach to each of two resort hotel beaches at Hurghada on the Red Sea and stabbed five German, one Armenian and one Czech tourists, all women, killing two German women.

The perpetrator then swam to nearby El Palacio beach resort hotel where he attacked two more German women.

He is from Kafr el-Sheikh province in the Nile Delta, and a graduate of the local branch campus of the Al-Azhar University, which has been accused of doctrinal rigidity and political extremism.

[2][3] Deutsche Welle reports that according to "a source close to the investigation perpetrator "communicated with [the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (IS) group] via internet and was given the task of attacking foreign tourists on Hurghada beaches" by the extremist militia.

"[3] On 28 July 2017, the Czech Republic asked Egypt to announce more details of what happened in the attack and to consider compensating the victims' families.