The motivation of at least two of the attacks was not clear, but the spate of violence came amid heightened tension following the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict, during which Egyptians had protested against their government's closure of the Rafah Border Crossing.
[1] At 18:30 local time on 22 February 2009, a bomb exploded in Khan el-Khalili, a souq in eastern Cairo.
[2] The attack took place just after dark in front of a cafe crowded with people gathering to watch a televised football match.
[6] Police quickly arrested a 46-year-old Egyptian laborer, Abdel Rahman Saleh Taher Mohammed (Arabic: عبد الرحمن صالح طاهر محمّد), whose motive was quoted by the Egyptian state-owned news agency MENA as being a "hatred for foreigners because of the Israeli offensive in Gaza".
The perpetrators fled the scene, and witness reports identified the suspects variously as a single man or two boys.