Rafah
Rafah (Arabic: رفح Hebrew: רפיח) is a town in the
Gaza Strip, on the
Egyptian border, and a nearby town on the Egyptian side of the border, on the
Sinai Peninsula. Over the ages is has been known as Robihwa by the ancient Egyptians, Rafihu by the
Assyrians, Raphia by the
Greeks and
Romans, Rafiach by
Israelites and now
Rafah. The Aramaic text
Targum Onkelos interpreted the Biblical location of
Chatzerim as referring to Rafah, but there is no other evidence for this.
It is the largest town in the southern strip, with a population of about 96,000, of which some 44,000 live in the two
refugee camps about it, Canada Camp to the north, and Rafah camp to the south.
Yasser Arafat International Airport, Gaza's only airport, is located just south of the city; the airport operated from 1998 to 2001.
Rafah is the site of Gaza's only international border crossing. Formerly operated by Israeli military forces, control of the crossing was transferred to the
Palestinian Authority in September 2005 as part of the larger
Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. A commission of the
European Union began monitoring the crossing in November 2005 amid Israeli security concerns, and in April 2006 Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas's Presidential Guard assumed responsibility for the site.
[Mitch Potter, Something that works: the Rafah crossing, The Toronto Star, May 21, 2006.]Ancient period
Rafah has a history stretching back thousands of years. It was first recorded in an inscription of Egyptian
Pharaoh Seti I, from
1303 BC, and as the first stop on Pharaoh
Shoshenq I's campaign to the Levant in
925 BC.
In
720 BC it was the site of the
Assyrian king
Sargon II's victory over the Egyptians, and in
217 BC the
Battle of Raphia was fought between the victorious
Ptolemy IV and
Antiochus III. (It is said to be the largest battle ever fought in the Levant, with over a hundred thousand soldiers and hundreds of
elephants).
During the
Byzantine period, it was a
Diocese, and an important trading city during the early
Arab period, however it steadily declined and was likely abandoned by the 12th century. By the
Mameluk period it was recorded as a postal station, and 16th century
Ottoman records show a small village of 16 taxpayers.
The 20th century
In 1917 the
British army
captured Rafah, and it was used as a base for the
attack on Gaza. The presence of the army bases drew people back to the city, and in 1922 it had a population of 600. By 1948 the population had risen to 2,500. After the
Israeli War of Independence, the refugee camps were established, and in 1967 the population was about 55,000, of whom only 11,000 lived in Rafah itself.
In the summer of 1971, the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF), under General
Ariel Sharon (then head of the IDF southern command), destroyed approximately two thousand houses in the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip, a quarter of them in Rafah. Bulldozers plowed through dense urban areas to create wide patrol roads to facilitate the general mobility of Israeli forces. The demolitions in Rafah displaced nearly four thousand people. Israel established the Brazil and Canada housing projects to accommodate displaced Palestinians; Brazil is to the immediate south of Rafah, whereas Canada was located just across the border in Sinai. Both were named because
UN peacekeeping troops from those respective countries had maintained barracks in those locations. After the
Camp David peace treaty mandated the repatratiation of Canada project refugees to the Gaza Strip, the Tel al-Sultan project, to the northwest of Rafah, was built to accommodate them.
[Human Rights Watch. Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip. October 2004.]*
EU BAM Rafah*
Rafah Smuggling Tunnels *
Rafah Pundits: Rafah Focused Blog*
Raising Yousuf - Blog by Laila el-Hadad who is a reporter for Aljazeera living in Gaza
*
Reports from Rafah*
Interview with Hip Hop Artist Michael Franti - Reporting from Rafah.
*
Part A Part B Satellite photos comparing 2001 to 2004.
*
Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip - Human Rights Watch
