During the August 2013 Cairo sit-ins dispersal , the Egyptian military under el-Sisi 's command was involved in assisting the national police in dispersing two sit-ins held by Muslim Brotherhood/Morsi supporters from sit-ins in Rabaa el-Adaweya and Nahda squares . This action resulted in rapidly escalating violence that eventually led to deaths of 638 people , of whom 595 were peaceful protestors with at least 3,994 injured ( according to the Ministry of Health ) in addition to several violent incidents in various cities including Minya and Kerdasa . Writing for British newspaper '' The Independent '' in August 2013 , Robert Fisk described then-General el-Sisi as being at a loss , but that a massacre - as Fisk called the sit-in dispersal - would go down in history as an infamy . Writing for the American magazine '' Time '' , Lee Smith concluded that " Egypt 's new leader is unfit to rule " , referring not to the actual head of government at the time , interim president Adly Mansour , but to Sisi . In a file published by the State Information Services , the government explained the raids by stating that " police went on to use force dispersing the sit-in on 14 August 2013 with the least possible damage , causing hundreds of civilians and police to fall as victims , while Muslim Brotherhood supporters imposed a blockade for 46 days against the people in al-Nahda and Rabaa al-Adawiya squares under the name of sit-in where tens of protesters took to the street daily hindered the lives of the Egyptians , causing unrest and the death or injury of many victims as well as damage to public and private properties "
Kerdasa
Kerdasa massacre
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi