Mariam Habeib lost her older sister, two nieces and a niece’s three young children in an intense fire that engulfed a church in Egypt’s capital during a recent service and killed 41 people.

A fire ripped through a packed Coptic Orthodox church during morning services in Egypt’s capital on Sunday, quickly filling it with thick black smoke and killing 41 worshippers, including at least 15 children.

Egypt reasserted itself as an indispensable mediator in the Middle East after it successfully brokered a cease-fire deal in the short but costly Israel-Hamas war that killed scores of people and caused much destruction in the Gaza Strip.