Kerem Shalom border crossing

Dahaniya (Arabic: الدهنية) was a village near the southernmost point in the Gaza Strip, evacuated in Israel's disengagement of 2005. Dahaniya was located in a no man's land between Israel and the Gaza strip, in between the Israeli kibbutz of Kerem Shalom and the Palestinian city of Rafah, south of Yasser Arafat International Airport (also called Dahaniya Airport) and close to the Egyptian border. It had been administered by the Israeli Civil Administration since the Oslo accords. Dahaniya was founded in 1977 as a sanctuary for Bedouin collaborators with Israel from the Sinai Peninsula. in 1976 The elders of the Egyptian-Bedouin tribe had reached an agreement with the Israeli government regarding exchange of land. They had given Israel property rights for land in Sinai on which to found villages, and in exchange, they had been given the rights to the village of Dahaniya. Hundreds of Bedouin families from the Sinai desert found refuge there. In the following decades, the residents of Dahaniya collaborated with Israeli security forces in their efforts to locate those it deemed as infiltrators, and families of collaborators from the West Bank and Gaza Strip joined the village. In 1994 many of the residents left the village to the larger cities in Israel (including Tel Aviv and Beersheba). The Palestinians considered the residents of Dahaniya traitors and worthy of execution, and it was nicknamed the "village of the collaborators". Since the beginning of the Second Intifada, Dahaniya residents feared for their lives. Village residents were banned from entering the Gaza Strip, the village was ringed by a security fence, and the entry and exit into the village was administered by Israel. Among the Palestinians who would enter the village regularly were teachers, doctors, water and electricity workers and traders. The Kerem Shalom border crossing was used by residents working in Israel and the Gush Katif settlements. Some of the residents held Israeli documents, while others held Palestinian documents (issued by the Israeli Civil Administration). During the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005, the village's residents were evacuated to Israel. All of the buildings in the village except for the mosque were subsequently destroyed by Israeli bulldozers.

The August 2012 Sinai attack occurred on 5 August 2012, when armed men ambushed an Egyptian military base in the Sinai Peninsula, killing 16 soldiers and stealing two armored cars, which they used to infiltrate into Israel. The attackers broke through the Kerem Shalom border crossing to Israel, where one of the vehicles exploded. They then engaged in a firefight with soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), during which six of the attackers were killed. No Israelis were injured. The attack led to sharp condemnations from Israeli and Egyptian authorities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his condolences for the Egyptian soldiers killed, and praised IDF troops for their preparedness and handling of the attack. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that the incident should be a "wake up call" for Egypt in dealing with terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula, while Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi vowed to retake the Sinai Peninsula and declared three days of mourning. The Egyptian government also closed the Rafah Border Crossing to the Gaza Strip.

Kerem Shalom (Hebrew: כֶּרֶם שָׁלוֹם, "Vineyard of Peace") is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located on the triple Gaza Strip-Israel-Egypt border, it falls under the jurisdiction of Eshkol Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 194.

Yasser Arafat International Airport (Arabic: مطار ياسر عرفات الدولي Maṭār Yāsir 'Arafāt ad-Dawli) (IATA: GZA, ICAO: LVGZ), formerly Gaza International Airport and Dahaniya International Airport, was located in the Gaza Strip, between Rafah and Dahaniya, close to the Egyptian border. The facility opened on 24 November 1998, and all passenger flights ceased in February 2001, during the Second Intifada. Israel bombed the radar station and control tower on 4 December 2001 and bulldozers cut the runway on 10 January 2002, rendering the airport inoperable.

Talmei Yosef (Hebrew: תלמי יוסף, lit. Yosef Furrows) was an Israeli settlement and moshav in the Sinai Peninsula. Located near Yamit, it was evacuated in 1982 as a result of the Camp David Accords. The moshav was established in 1977 by a gar'in group of immigrants from South Africa and the United States. It was named after Yosef Weitz, a former director of the Land and Afforestation Department of the Jewish National Fund. When the settlement was evacuated, its residents founded a new moshav by the same name in the Hevel Shalom area in Israel, close to the Egypt–Gaza border.

Hatzer Adar (Hebrew: חצר אדר, lit. Maple Garden) was an Israeli settlement and moshav in the Sinai Peninsula. Located near Yamit, it was evacuated in 1982 as a result of the Camp David Accords.In the northeast Sinai, 12 kilometers from the moshav Neot Sinai, next to the junction Haruvit. It was one of the settlements of Hevel Yamit and was established in December 1981, by the movement to stop the withdrawal from Sinai about six months before the IDF withdrew from Sinai. Adar]] Biblical court. The moshav was established by a group of settlers from Judea and Samaria and other places, who welcomed the government's intention to hand over the opening of Rafah and Sinai to Egypt, as agreed in the peace agreement between Israel to Egypt Peace Treaty. It was the youngest settlement among the Sinai settlements. On December 24, 1981, a Torah scroll was brought to the synagogue.The secretary of the moshav was Yigal Kirshenzaft, who was previously a resident of the city Yamit and was sent on a mission by the rabbi of the city yeshiva Israel Ariel. Among the residents of the moshav was also Baruch Marzel, who was entrusted with maintaining wireless contact with those who opposed the evacuation by sea and updating the residents on military operations. The coordinator of the settlement was Michael Ben Horin. The moshav was evacuated by the IDF for the first time on March 3, 1982, in one of the most difficult evacuation operations the IDF has known in Sinai. On the day of the evacuation, MK Yuval Ne'eman of the Tehiya movement, who opposed the withdrawal, was present in the Hatzer Adar. On the evening of that day, Ne'eman warned on the broadcast of Mabat on Channel One television that "if things continue as they were this morning in the Hatzer Adar, we are very close to bloodshed." He described dragging people into barbed wire, injuring them and using axes, and warned the government Begin not to shed Jewish blood. The moshav Hatzer Adar was in the Yamit Region and followed the other settlements in the region: Yamit, Atzmona, Nativ Haasara, Sadot, Dekla, Pri-El, Pri Gan, Telmei Yosef, Ugda, Nir Avraham, Neot Sinai, Harovit, Sufa, Avshalom and Holit.On March 11, 1982, at 6:00 a.m., a group of about 50 settlers, along with Geula Cohen and Rabbi Israel Ariel, arrived to re-establish the settlement, in which one hut remained. At noon, the army evacuated the settlers. After the second evacuation, in a demonstration in Jerusalem of opponents of the withdrawal from Sinai on March 16, 1982, Rabbi Isser Klonsky, a neighborhood rabbi, promised that the Hatzer Adar would be established again. The settlers established Hatzer Adar III, Hatzer Adar IV and finally Hatzer Adar V. They were all evacuated one by one. Hadar Adar was one of the four localities where there was a concentration of opponents of the withdrawal.

Shokat as-Sufi is a Palestinian town in the southern Gaza Strip, south of Rafah and adjacent to the inoperable Yasser Arafat International Airport. It is one of the poorest localities in the Gaza Strip, and has underdeveloped infrastructure.According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) census in 1997, Shokat as-Sufi had a population of 5,663 of which 90% were Palestinian refugees. The gender make-up of the town was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. According to the PCBS, in 2017, it had a population of 16,445.Shokat as-Sufi is governed by a municipal council of eleven members including the mayor, who since 2005 has been Mousa Abu Jlaidan.

Netiv HaAsara (Hebrew: נְתִיב הָעֲשָׂרָה, lit. Path of the Ten) was a moshav and Israeli settlement in the Sinai Peninsula. Located near Yamit, it was founded in 1973 and was named for ten soldiers that were killed in a helicopter accident south of Rafah in 1971. After the moshav was evacuated as part of the Camp David Accords, 70 families who had previously lived in the settlement founded a new moshav, also called Netiv HaAsara in the north-western Negev desert in Israel.

Rafah (Arabic: رفح Rafaḥ [rafaħ]; Hebrew: רָפִיחַ Rafiaḥ [ʁaˈfi.aχ]) is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip; it is the capital of the Rafah Governorate of the State of Palestine, located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. As a result of massive bombardment and ground assaults in Gaza City and Khan Yunis by Israel, about 1 million people are believed to be sheltering in Rafah.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. The core of the city was destroyed by Israel and Egypt 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. Tunnels under the city are used for smuggling activity between Egypt and Gaza.

The Battle of Rafah was a military engagement between the Israel Defense Forces and the Egyptian Army in the final stage of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was fought on January 3–8, 1949, just south of Rafah, today in the Gaza Strip. The battle was initiated by Israel as part of Operation Horev, on the backdrop of the Sinai battles just before. The Israelis were hoping to encircle all Egyptian forces in Palestine and drive them back to Egypt. The Golani and Harel brigades were allocated for the attack, with the 8th Brigade serving as the operational reserve and the Negev Brigade staging diversions. While the Israelis had great trouble to advance in their individual assaults, eventually a battalion-sized force managed to take a position on the road from Rafah to the Sinai Peninsula, effectively surrounding the Egyptian expeditionary force. However, by this time the Egyptians agreed to negotiate armistice and the Israeli political echelon therefore ordered all troops back. The battle of Rafah was the last major combat operation in the war and was followed by the armistice agreements with Egypt.

The Battle of Rafa, also known as the Action of Rafah, fought on 9 January 1917, was the third and final battle to complete the recapture of the Sinai Peninsula by British forces during the Sinai and Palestine campaign of the First World War. The Desert Column of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) attacked an entrenched Ottoman Army garrison at El Magruntein to the south of Rafah, close to the frontier between the Sultanate of Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, to the north and east of Sheikh Zowaiid. The attack marked the beginning of fighting in the Ottoman territory of Palestine. After the British Empire victories at the Battle of Romani in August 1916 and the Battle of Magdhaba in December, the Ottoman Army had been forced back to the southern edge of Palestine as the EEF pushed eastwards supported by extended lines of communication. This advance depended on the construction of a railway and a water pipeline. With the railway reaching El Arish on 4 January 1917, an attack on Rafa by the newly-formed Desert Column became possible. During the day-long assault, the Ottoman garrison defended El Magruntein's series of fortified redoubts and trenches on rising ground surrounded by flat grassland. They were eventually encircled by Australian Light Horsemen, New Zealand mounted riflemen, mounted yeomanry, cameliers and armoured cars. In the late afternoon, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade captured the central redoubt and the remaining defences were occupied shortly afterwards.

On 7 October 2023, the Hamas Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Al-Qassam Brigades) attacked Holit, a kibbutz close to the border fence with the Gaza Strip, as part of a surprise attack on Israel. Twelve residents including one member of the security team were killed, Three foreign kibbutz employees, two from Nepal and a Moldavian, were also killed. A resident, whose parents were killed, and a Thai employee, were injured. They recovered, with the employee subsequently returning to Thailand. Four members of a family were injured when a grenade failed to breach their safe room, but shrapnel entered through the space under the door. Seven hostages were taken captive. Three were released on the day of the attack just before reaching the Gaza border fence. An additional two were released during the Israeli–Palestinian prisoner exchange. Two hostages remain in captivity. Tanks from the Israel Defence Forces' (IDF) Paran Brigade, and the Shaldag Unit, only regained control of the kibbutz after midnight, clearing it of militants either by killing or chasing them away.