Rafah city, Gaza

OutlinE Arch.

8 May, 2024

What do you know about Rafah, Gaza?

Rafah's location and area

The city of Rafah is located in the far south of Gaza City, 107 km away from Jerusalem. The area of Rafah is 55 km2.

It is located in the far south of the Gaza Strip, about 35 km from Gaza City and 10 km from Khan Yunis. It is bordered to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, to the east by the 1948 armistice line, and to the south by the Egyptian-Palestinian border. It is considered the largest city in the Strip on the Egyptian border, with an area of 55 km2.

Rafah is a very ancient city with ancient roots. It has carried many names throughout the ages and has witnessed many famous military sites. Rafah was known as Raphia in the time of the Canaanites. It was stated in the Easy Arabic Encyclopedia that the city of Rafah is an ancient city on the borders of Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula on the Mediterranean Sea, and its name is Rabih. In ancient Egyptian, Rafia in Greek. During the time of the Ottomans, a road passed through it linking Egypt to the Levant. Rafah is one of the ancient Canaanite cities, and in the time of the Assyrians it was called Rafihu.

After the Camp David Agreement, the city of Rafah was divided into two parts, one in Palestine and one in Egypt, with the Rafah crossing in the middle.

The population of Rafah

The population of Rafah Governorate is about 260 thousand people

The residents of Rafah lived in tragic conditions during the periods of the Israeli occupation, and the suffering doubled during the Al-Aqsa Intifada between 2000 and 2005, as the occupation intensified the policies of military raids, sieges and closures, preventing citizens from practicing their normal lives and engaging in their daily activities, obstructing their access to their work centers, schools and universities, controlling the crossings and preventing... Getting their basic needs .

In 2005, Israel withdrew from the entire Gaza Strip, including Rafah. However, it imposed a stifling siege on the Gaza Strip in 2007, with the people of Gaza unable to obtain their basic needs, which prompted them to dig dozens of tunnels that extended under the border and connected the Palestinian Rafah with the Egyptian Rafah. It formed lifelines through which the Palestinians obtained their daily needs, before Egypt announced its final destruction.

After the war launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip, in the wake of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, Rafah became a focal point of displacement for the residents of the Strip, as civilians were forced under heavy Israeli bombardment to go south to Rafah, which turned into a large camp for the displaced, containing more than a million refugees. They are staying in schools, public facilities and tents under tragic conditions, with a severe lack of basic humanitarian requirements .