The two sites had been occupied by supporters of President Mohamed Morsi, who had been removed from office by the military a little over a month earlier following mass protests against his rule.

[21] Authorities saw the camps as destabilising and disruptive and representing "a threat to the Egyptian national security and an unacceptable terrorizing of citizens,"[21][24] accusing the pro-Morsi side of provoking bloodshed to win sympathy.

[26] Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi warned ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday that the government's decision to clear the sit-ins was "irreversible".

[27] According to the Interior Ministry, the plan was to disperse the six-week-old sit-ins gradually by forming cordons around the two sites as early as dawn Monday, 12 August, allowing protesters to leave but preventing others from getting in, to minimize casualties before using water cannons and tear gas.

In Rabaa, men with helmets, sticks and what appeared to be protective sports equipment guarded barricades made of sandbags, truck tires and brick.

[23][29][30] Thousands of Morsi supporters chanting "Allahu Akbar" tried to join those besieged by the security forces but they were driven away when police fired tear gas.

The National Coalition for Supporting Legitimacy, a pro-Morsi group, reiterated its rejection of violence and called on its members to continue to protest "to stop the massacre".

[25] Crowds of Morsi supporters marched toward eastern Cairo in the late morning, running into a barrage of gunfire as they confronted police lines.

[17] However, protesters established new sit-ins outside Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque in Mohandeseen, Giza[32] and others in cities around the country, defying the new curfew and the interior minister's vows to break up any such assemblies.

[23] Initial reports by the Egyptian Health Ministry said 235 protesters, three journalists and 43 policemen died in the violence and more than 2,000 were injured, with the death toll expected to rise.

[23][29] Egyptian state television aired images of weapons confiscated from the sit-in protesters' camps, including automatic rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

An Egyptian free-to-air satellite news television channel aired infrared footage appearing to show pro-Brotherhood rioters firing automatic weapons against security forces.

[17] Supporters of Morsi staged solidarity protests against the crackdown, with clashes reported in Ismailia, Alexandria, Suez, Upper Egypt's Assiyut and Aswan and other places.

The party also released a statement that read: "Despite the pain and sorrow over the loss of our martyrs, the latest coup makers' crime has increased our determination to end them.

[46][47] The following day, Egypt's interim cabinet lifted the curfew in the cities of Sharm el-Sheikh, Taba and Dahab in South Sinai to protect tourism.

[62][63][65][66][68][70] Egyptian reporter Ahmed Abdel Gawad, who was with the Al-Akhbar state-run newspaper and was an editorial manager for the Muslim Brotherhood television satellite channel Misr 25, was shot in the back and killed.

[71] Previously during the 2013 political violence in Egypt, photojournalist Ahmed Assem el-Senousy was killed on 8 July 2013 as a result of sniper fire, while covering a protest.

It stated that Egypt was feeling severe bitterness towards some western media coverage that is biased to the Muslim Brotherhood and ignores shedding light on violent and terror acts that are perpetrated by this group.

[78] Mostafa Hegazy, a spokesperson for Egypt's interim government, said: "We're not into the effort of dissolving anyone – or preventing anyone from being active in the public domain, but we're trying to make sure that everyone is legalised according to what the Egyptian law says..."[79] He added that the country was facing a war waged by "terrorist forces".

"[88] In the wake of continued protests and violence, army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said that he would no longer restrain his forces from confronting "attackers who want to destroy Egypt."

Former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh added that was in touch with senior state officials and had asked them to take the necessary decision to stop the bloodshed immediately as it could drag the country into a wave of violence and chaos.

The Dawaa Salafya called on the cabinet to resign and issued a statement that condemned the violent clashes and warned against dragging the country into mobilisation of both sides, which would negatively affect social cohesion.

[96][97][98][99] In November 2013, Al-Ahly's Ahmed Abd El-Zaher was deprived of his Champions League win bonus, suspended and put up for sale in the January transfer window for a gesture in support of Morsi.

[104] On 10 December, thirteen Egyptian and international human rights organizations urged Cairo's interim authorities to probe the violence during the sit-in dispersal in the capital on 14 August.

"As a first step toward accountability, the government should establish an effective independent fact-finding committee to investigate responsibility throughout the chain of command for the unlawful killings," the rights groups said.

"After the unprecedented levels of violence and casualties seen since the ousting of Mohamed Morsi, investigations must provide real answers and cannot be another whitewash of the security forces' record," Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty International said in the statement.

"[80] The New York Times called the dispersal the "clearest sign yet that the old Egyptian police state was re-emerging" and added that its reporters saw no evidence of weapon stockpiles in the protest camps.

It quoted Brian Katulis, a foreign policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, who said: "What we're seeing in the Middle East is a competition for power and influence among the key states that are wealthier and have more resources.

Commercial International Bank Egypt SAE, the country's biggest publicly traded lender, led a list of 29 decliners with a 5.4 percent dive.

[146] As a result of the dispersal of the sit-ins, the Rabia sign (or R4BIA as some supporters call it) emerged widely among the pro-Morsi and pro-Brotherhood masses as a part of a protest campaign against the post-Morsi governmental authorities.