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Rafah

Also known as Rafa, Rafaḥ, Rafah City, Raphia, Raphiah

Rafah ( ) is a largely destroyed and depopulated city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, that served 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 was destroyed by means of systematic razing by the Israeli military and the remains fell under Israeli control.

AI overview

Rafah is a city in southern Gaza that was once home to around 170,000 people but has been largely destroyed during the recent Gaza war. It gained significance as over a million Palestinians were displaced there from other parts of Gaza, making it a major population center, though by April 2025 most of the city had been systematically razed by the Israeli military.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

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Place details

Locality: رفح
Region: قطاع غزة
Country: الأراضي الفلسطينية
Population: 126,305
Timezone: Asia/Gaza

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Key facts

Settlement.name: Rafah
Settlement.settlement_type: City
Settlement.translit_lang1: Arabic
Settlement.translit_lang1_type: Arabic
Settlement.image_skyline: An aerial view showing destruction in Rafah after Israeli forces withdrawal and as the ceasefire took hold, Gaza Strip.jpg
Settlement.image_caption: Aerial view of the remains of Rafah in January 2025
Settlement.pushpin_map: Palestine
Settlement.pushpin_map_caption: Location of Rafah
Settlement.pushpin_relief: 1
Settlement.image_map: Location Rafah.png
Settlement.map_caption: Location of Rafah in the Gaza Strip
Settlement.mapframe: yes
Settlement.grid_name: Palestine grid
Settlement.grid_position: 77/78
Settlement.subdivision_type: State
Settlement.subdivision_type1: Governorate
Settlement.subdivision_name1: Rafah
Settlement.subdivision_type2: Control

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Demonym: Rafahien
Population: 158414
Area: 64
Elevation: 54
Image: An aerial view showing destruction in Rafah after Israeli forces withdrawal and as the ceasefire took hold, Gaza Strip.jpg
Dialing code: 08 21X

Show 9 more facts

Commons category: Rafah
P8168: Günther Müller-Stöckheim
P11012: Dictyna sonora
native label: رَفَحْ
vocalized name: رَفَحْ
water as percent of area: 0
hashtag: Rafah
postal code: P970 - P999
external data available at URL: www.pcbs.gov.ps/statisticsIndicatorsTables.aspx?table_id=711

Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~18 min read

Article

24 sections

Contents

Etymology
History
Late Bronze Age
Iron Age
Classical Age
Hellenistic period
Roman period
Medieval Age
Byzantine period
Early Muslim to Mamluk periods
Ottoman and Egyptian period
British period
1948–1967
After 1967
Gaza war
2025 razing and destruction
Development
Demographics
Rafah Border Crossing
Climate
See also
References
Bibliography
External links

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 Defence 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.