British bulldozers and Centurion tanks had demolished fifty Egyptian mud houses to open a road to a water supply for the British army in December 1951.

This incident and one that follows on January 25 provoke intense Egyptian anger.

On January 25, 1952, the British attack an Egyptian police barracks at Ismailiya (Al Ismailiyah) when its occupants refuse to surrender to British troops.

Fifty Egyptians are killed and one hundred wounded.