On 14 August 2013, there was a massacre at the police station in Kerdasa. A group of armed and masked assailants attacked the town's police station firing bullets and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). They killed eleven police officers in revenge for the break-up of the Rabia al-Adawiya sit-in, a huge protest camp that had been set up by the MB and its allies against the military coup led by Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and the removal of the elected president Mohammad Morsi. Over the following thirty-five days, the Egyptian press and satellite TV channels produced dozens of reports on the criminality of the people of Kerdasa, accusing them of dealing in arms, committing acts of terrorism and supporting armed groups. In response, many of the families and activists there tried to deny any connection between Kerdasa and the attackers, claiming that ‘unknown people’ from other towns had committed the massacre.

At dawn on Thursday, 19 September 2013, the operation to storm Kerdasa began. It was broadcast live on television by Egyptian channels in a carnivalesque atmosphere. Tanks and armoured cars surrounded Kerdasa. Over the course of a few hours, thousands of rounds of live ammunition and tear gas canisters were fired. Throughout the day and into the night dozens of homes were raided, their contents smashed and their inhabitants, be they men, women or juveniles, arrested in a humiliating manner. The following day, after Friday prayers, a large number of townspeople came out to condemn the raids. The police and army stationed in the town responded with gunfire and tear gas, leading to the asphyxiation of a number of children.

The media, purged of any semblance of independence, behaved as though the Egyptian army were going to war, rather than targeting a group of citizens for arrest, and inflaming public opinion with imaginary victories over ‘enemies’ who were most likely innocent. For a week, the homes of respectable local personalities, many of whom were Islamists, were attacked. Videos began circulating of burnt-out homes and the damage caused by the security forces. Anything that could be stolen was taken and the remaining possessions of these households trashed. Hundreds of townspeople of various political affiliations were arrested. According to many Kerdasians, the value of stolen cash and jewellery was estimated to be hundreds of thousands of Egyptian pounds.