The United States first designated the organization in 1997. That year, Gama'a Islamiyya carried out the Luxor massacre, killing 62 tourists, including 36 Swiss citizens and people from Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.

It helped recruit the gunman who assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981. It also assassinated Egypt's Parliament Speaker Rifaat el-Mahgoub in 1990, and attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1995 in Addis Ababa.

Some members joined the Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviet invasion and later joined al-Qaida in 2006.