Rafah (, ) is a largely destroyed and depopulated city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, that serves as the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza City and Khan Yunis, about 70% of Gaza's population, were displaced to Rafah, as of February 2024. By April 2025, most of the city had been destroyed by Israeli forces and fell under Israeli control.
After the 1948 Palestine war, Egypt governed the area and refugee camps for displaced Palestinians who fled or were expelled from what became Israel were established. During the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed 111 Palestinians, including 103 refugees in the Rafah refugee camp, during the 1956 Rafah massacre. During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israeli forces re-occupied the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip after capturing them from Egypt. In the same year, IDF troops bulldozed and demolished 144 houses in the Rafah refugee camp, killing 23 Palestinians.
When Israel fully withdrew from the Sinai in 1982, Rafah was split into a Gazan part and an Egyptian part, separated by barbed-wire barriers. Then, since 2000, the core of the city was destroyed by Israel,Razing Rafah — Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip, pp. 27–28 and 52–66 (PDF text version) on , Summary:. The report on refworld:. Human Rights Watch (HRW), October 2004Supplementary Appeal for Rafah. UNWRA, May 2004PCHR, Uprooting Palestinian Trees And Leveling Agricultural Land – The tenth Report on Israeli Land Sweeping and Demolition of Palestinian Buildings and Facilities in the Gaza Strip 1 April 2003 – 30 April 2004 On and since the 2010s also by Egypt,Egyptian military doubling buffer zone with Gaza, demolishing nearly 1,220 more homes. Associated Press, 8 January 2015Look for Another Homeland. Human Rights Watch, September 2015 in order to create a large buffer zone.
Rafah is the site of the Rafah Border Crossing, the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Gaza's only airport, Yasser Arafat International Airport, was located just south of the city. The airport operated from 1998 to 2001, when it was destroyed by Israeli forces.
Etymology
Over the ages the city has been known as by the ancient Egyptians, or by the Assyrians, Polybius, Histories, 5.86.7 by the Greeks, Raphia by the Romans, and Rafh by the Arab Caliphate. In Hebrew, the city is known as Rafiah (Hebrew: רפיח).
Raphiah was a pagan city where worship of Dionysus abounded, so much so that Stephanus of Byzantium, in his 6th century work Ethnika wrote that the city's name was derived from the Greek word ραφή (raphe, meaning "stitch"), because it referenced the birth of the Dionysus who was stitched into Zeus' thigh.
In English, Rafah ( (US) or (UK)), derived from the modern Arabic, is most common, but Rafiah is also used. The form Raphiah is used as well, especially in historical contexts such as the Battle of Raphiah.
History
Late Bronze Age Rafah has a history stretching back thousands of years. It was first recorded in an inscription of Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I, from 1303 BCE as Raphia (Rph).
Iron Age It was the first stop on Pharaoh Shoshenq I's campaign to the Levant in 925 BCE. In 720 BCE it was the site of the Assyrian king Sargon II's victory over the Egyptians.Raphia – (Rafah) Studium Biblicum Franciscanum – Jerusalem.
Classical Age Hellenistic period In 217 BCE, the Battle of Raphia was fought between the victorious Ptolemy IV and Antiochus III. It is said to be one of the largest battles ever fought in the Levant, with over a hundred thousand soldiers and hundreds of elephants.
In 193 BC, Antiochus III, willing to make peace with Ptolemy V, had his daughter Cleopatra I marry Ptolemy V. Their marriage took place in Raphia.Polybius 18.51.10 and 28.20.9; Livy 33.40.3 and 35.13.4; Appian, Syriaca 3.13 and 5.18
Hasmonean and Roman period The town was conquered by the King of Judea, Alexander Yannai (Alexander Jannaeus) by 100 BCE and held by the Hasmonean Jewish kingdom until the Roman conquest. Rafah was then rebuilt in the time of Pompey and Gabinius; the latter seems to have done the actual work of restoration for the era of the town from 57 BCE. Rafah is mentioned in Strabo (16, 2, 31), the Antonine Itinerary, and is depicted on the Map of Madaba.
Medieval Age Byzantine period During the Byzantine period, it was a diocese,Joseph Bingham, Origines Ecclesiasticae; Or the Antiquities of the Christian Church and Other Works: In Nine Volumes, Volume 3(Straker, 1843) p 61. and Byzantine ceramics and coins have been found there.Dauphin, 1998, p. 953 It was represented at the Council of Ephesus 431 CE by Bishop Romanus, but today remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic ChurchTadrous Y. Malaty, Introduction to the Coptic Orthodox Church OrthodoxEbooks,1993) page 13.; additionally, a small Greek Orthodox presence remains in Rapha.
Early Muslim to Mamluk periods Rafah was one of the towns captured by the Rashidun army under general 'Amr ibn al-'As in 635 CE, and subsequently was an important trading city during the Early Muslim period.al-Biladhuri quoted in le Strange, 1890, p. xix. Al-Biladhuri lists the cities captured by Amr ibn al-'As as Ghazzah (Gaza), Sebastiya (Sebastia), Nabulus, Amwas (Imwas), Kaisariyya (Caesarea), Yibna, Ludd (Lydda), Rafh (Rafah), Bayt Jibrin, and Yaffa (Jaffa). Cited in le Strange, 1890, p. 28 Under the Umayyads and Abbasids, Rafah was the southernmost border of Jund Filastin ("District of Palestine"). According to Arab geographer al-Ya'qubi, it was the last town in the Province of Syria and on the road from Ramla to Egypt.le Strange, 1890, p. 517
In 1226, Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi writes of Rafah's former importance in the early Arab period, saying it was "of old a flourishing town, with a market, and a mosque, and hostelries". However, he goes on to say that in its current state, Rafah was in ruins, but was an Ayyubid postal station on the road to Egypt after nearby Deir al-Balah.
Ottoman and Egyptian period
Rafah appeared in the 1596 Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Gaza of the Liwa of Gazza. It had a population of 15 households, all Muslim, who paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, occasional revenues, goats and/or bee hives.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 150 In 1799, the French Army of the Orient, led by Napoleon, passed through Rafah during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria.Dwyer, 2007, p. 415 Rafah was the boundary between the provinces of Egypt and Syria. In 1832, the area came under Egyptian occupation of Muhammad Ali, which lasted until 1840.
French explorer Victor Guérin, who visited Rafah in May 1863, noted two pillars of granite which the locals called Bab el Medinet, meaning "The Gate of the town".Guérin, 1869, pp. 233-35 In 1881, Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria wrote: "Fragments of gray granite pillars, still standing, are here to be met with about the road, the fields, and the sand, and we saw one lying on the ground half buried... The pillars are the remains of an ancient temple, Raphia, and are of special importance in the eyes of the Arabs, who call them Rafah, as they mark the boundary between Egypt and Syria."Ludwig Salvator, Archduke of Austria, 1881, p. 54
British period
On 9 January 1917, British forces captured Rafah, and subsequently used it as a staging post for their first attempt to capture Gaza. The presence of British military bases in Rafah served an economic draw which led to an influx of internal migration to the city. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandatory authorities, Rafah had a population of 599 inhabitants, all of which Muslim.Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 8 Nine years later, the Mandatory authorities conducted the 1931 census of Palestine, by which time Rafah's population had increased to 1,423 residents living in 228 houses, all of which were still Muslim.Mills, 1932, p. 6
In the Village Statistics, 1945, a joint survey conducted by the Mandatory government's Government Office of Statistics and Department of Lands for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, Rafah had an all-Muslim population of 2,220 people with 40,579 dunams of land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 32Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 46 Of these, 275 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 24,173 dunams were used for growing cereals, while 16,131 dunams were un-cultivable land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 88 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 138
1948–1967 : under Egyptian control
After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Egypt governed the area (see Palestinian Protectorate) and refugee camps were established. During the Suez Crisis, 111 Palestinians, including 103 refugees, were killed by troops of the Israel Defence Force in the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah, during the 1956 Rafah massacre. The United Nations was unable to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israeli forces captured Rafah as part of their invasion of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip. The population was about 55,000, of whom only 11,000 lived in Rafah itself. On Friday, 9 June 1967, the Israeli military bulldozed & blew up 144 houses in Rafah refugee camp, killing 23 Palestinians.Cattan, Henry (1969) Palestine, The Arabs & Israel. The Search for Justice. Longman SBN 582 78000 4 p. 111
After 1967 : Israeli occupation and settlement