The UN Security Council will meet Wednesday to discuss Libya as Egypt announces it sees no other option than launching an international intervention to target Islamic extremists there.

On Monday, Egypt launched airstrikes in Libya in retaliation for the killing of 21 Egyptian Christians kidnapped by a Libyan extremist group.  “The brutal mass murder of Egyptian nationals in Libya was the first large-scale atrocity claimed by Isis outside its familiar heartlands in Syria and Iraq,” the Guardian reported.

Though the strikes were reportedly aimed at IS targets, civilians became casualties as well. The Egyptian military said, “The air strikes hit their [ISIL] targets precisely, and the falcons of our air forces returned safely to their bases.” However, NBC News reported that “activists and witnesses in Derna told Libyan television that eight strikes had destroyed homes in the Sheeha neighborhood, killing civilians including three children and two women.”

Speaking on France’s Europe 1 Radio, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said, “I think there is no choice” other than having a UN-backed coalition take military action. He said,  “We have abandoned the Libyan people as prisoners of the militias . . . The militias have to give up their arms and must work in a civil context. We have to disarm and prevent arms from falling into the hands of extremists.”

For ordinary Libyans, the potential of intervention comes amid years of continuing humanitarian crisis.