“Islamic State squads carried out the attacks on two churches in Tanta and Alexandria,” said the group’s self-styled Amaq news agency in a statement published on social media accounts.
Punch reports that the first bombing struck a church in the city of Tanta north of Cairo, killing 25 worshippers.
The other attack, which the interior ministry said was caused by a suicide bomber, killed 11 people at a church in Alexandria.
The ministry said Coptic Pope Tawadros II was inside the church leading a Palm Sunday service when the suicide bomber was stopped by police outside and blew himself up.
A church official said Tawadros had already left the church when the bombing took place.
IS had claimed last December’s bombing of a Cairo church that killed 29 people, and threatened further attacks on Egyptian Christians.