It was a nightmare scene — the worst in Egypt’s modern history. Over 300 civilians, including 27 children, died and more than 100 were wounded in a terrorist attack that targeted a mosque in the Bedouin village of al-Rawda, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of el-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province.

Residents say that most of the village’s men were killed in the attack, which they described as a massacre bordering on genocide. The village is home to around 2,000 people, most of them from al-Jarirat tribe, part of al-Sawarka tribe, the peninsula’s second biggest.

Witnesses from the village told Al-Monitor that five four-wheel-drive vehicles carrying around 25 gunmen in military clothing, armed with machine guns and black flags similar to that of the Islamic State (IS), arrived at the mosque where most of the village men were gathered for Friday prayers on Nov. 24.

The gunmen separated into groups. One group opened fire on worshippers through the windows of the mosque, while another one set fire to their cars outside to prevent people from fleeing. A third group monitored the surrounding roads, killing village residents headed for the mosque and preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded.