Clasping palm trees cut into figurines of crosses and donkeys to symbolise Christ's entrance into Jerusalem, Coptic Christians are usually visible on the streets of Egypt before entering a week of mourning to mark Christ's tribulations before Easter. The solemn Passion Week, has taken on its most sombre tone yet.

The death toll has risen to 44 with more than 120 wounded making it the worst targeted attack on Copts in recent history.

In Alexandria, 18 are dead and four police officers died stopping a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest from entering St Mark's Cathedral. Pope Tawadrous II, the Coptic Orthodox Pope who has supported President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since he ousted Mohamed Morsi, was conducting the service and emerged unharmed in what was the most direct assault on his papacy.

It was the clearest message yet from the emboldened terrorist group Islamic State that it was making good on a promise made in a video message in late February vowing to kill Copts, their "favourite prey".

Earlier, in the western delta town of Tanta, 27 were killed, mostly deacons, including a priest's son named Bishoy. Footage shows the men, dressed in white tunics with red sashes, in St George's church singing a Greek hymn called Evlogiminos (Blessed is He) when the camera stops.

Their sashes signify the importance of blood and sacrifice in a church that venerates martyrdom. They have been laid to rest in a hasty funeral overnight with mourners wailing on their coffins and dubbing them the newest martyrs.

Security failures have been glossed over with nationalist rhetoric and martial law. Sisi trod familiar ground of not letting sectarian differences be exploited in his shaky speech after the attacks saying "I will not say our Christians brothers but our condolences to all Egyptians".

He instructed the military to secure "vital facilities" including churches.

Yet frustration from Egypt's Copts, the majority of whom backed Sisi in his ascent to power, is palpable.

A regional police chief for Tanta was beaten up by mourners as he tried to enter St George's after the bombing. Copts also protested near St Mark's in Alexandria.

The state of emergency, throughout Egypt, is effective for three months enabling arbitrary indefinite arrests and suspension of constitutional rights. In North Sinai, it has been applied since Mohamed Morsi's ouster in July 2013 and renewed ever since with little effect on IS's growing insurgent base. Last month, about 250 Coptic families were forced to leave their homes in Arish, Sinai's capital, after the militant group shot a Christian father and his son behind a school.

In the week after meeting US President Donald Trump in Washington, Sisi has continued his crackdown in the name of fighting terrorism. The emergency law is a tactic that former autocrat Hosni Mubarak used throughout his 30-year reign with disastrous results.

Trump tweeted that he was confident Sisi would "handle situation properly". He has been a staunch supporter of the military general-turned-president seeing him as a pivotal bulwark in the amorphously defined "war on terror".

Yet, with mounting attacks from IS and an unstable economy bereft of tourism revenues, Trump's confidence is misplaced until Egypt tackles the social problems of structural sectarianism and punishes those targeting Copts, not just from Islamic State.

The Tahrir Institute based in Washington says the bombings marked 26 sectarian attacks this year alone. They are comprised mostly of mob attacks, church and house burnings - in most cases those charged are let go with impunity.

Sisi and his supporters normally repeat the mantra "at least we are not Syria or Iraq" in reference to both countries' deadly scourge of IS. As more lethal attacks on the country's minority continue that sentiment loses meaning with every blood drop shed.