Rafah
Rafah | |
|---|---|
City | |
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | رَفَح |
| Hebrew transcription(s) | |
| • Hebrew | רָפִיחַ |
 | |
 Location of Rafah in the Gaza Strip | |
  Rafah Location of Rafah within Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 31°17′19″N 34°15′07″E / 31.28861°N 34.25194°ECoordinates: 31°17′19″N 34°15′07″E / 31.28861°N 34.25194°E | |
| Palestine grid | 77/78 |
| State | State of Palestine |
| Governorate | Rafah |
| Government | |
| • Type | City |
| • Head of Municipality | Anwar al-Shaer (2019)[1] |
| Population (2014)[2] | |
| • Total | 152,950 |
Rafah (Arabic: رفح, romanized: Rafaḥ) is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. It is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate, located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south of Gaza City. Rafah's population of 152,950 (2014) is overwhelmingly made up of former Palestinian refugees.
When Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1982, Rafah was split into a Gazan part and an Egyptian part, dividing families, separated by barbed-wire barriers.[3][4] The core of the city was destroyed by Israel[5][6][7] and Egypt[8][9] to create a large buffer zone.
Rafah is the site of the Rafah Border Crossing, the sole crossing point between Egypt and the State of Palestine. Gaza's only airport, Yasser Arafat International Airport, was located just south of the city. The airport operated from 1998 to 2001, until it was bombed and bulldozed by the Israeli military (IDF) after the killing of Israeli soldiers by members of Hamas.
Etymology[]
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| rpwḥw[10] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Era: New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC) | ||||||
| Egyptian hieroglyphs |
Over the ages it has been known as Rpwḥw by the ancient Egyptians[10],