Yasser Arafat International Airport

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.

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.

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.

Kerem Shalom border crossing (Hebrew: מעבר כרם שלום, "Vineyard of Peace"; Arabic: معبر كرم أبو سالم, Karem Abu Salem) is a border crossing at the junction of two border sections: one between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and one between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. It is used by trucks carrying goods from Israel or Egypt to the Gaza Strip.

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.

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.

Rafah Camp (Arabic: مخيم رفح or معسكر رفح) is one of eight Palestinian refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. It is located in the Rafah Governorate along the Gaza–Egypt border. It was established in 1949 and currently forms part of the city of Rafah. During the period of its establishment, it was the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip; however its population has decreased due to migration to the Tall as-Sultan camp, an extension of Rafah camp, which was set up to absorb refugees repatriated from Canada Camp. According to the UNRWA, the camp has a population of 99,000 inhabitants, This figure includes (in contrast to PCBS census data) Tall as-Sultan. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics 2017 census listed 36,550 residents in the camp. The camp is the second largest refugee camp in Palestine. There are 31 schools (20 primary, 11 secondary) run by the UNRWA.

Al-Bayuk (Arabic: البَيُوك, also spelled al-Buyuk) is a Palestinian village in the Rafah Governorate located south of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), it had a population of 5,648 in 2006.

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.

The Battle of Raphia, also known as the Battle of Gaza, was fought on 22 June 217 BC near modern Rafah between the forces of Ptolemy IV Philopator, king and pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt and Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid Empire during the Syrian Wars. It was one of the largest battles of the Hellenistic kingdoms and of the ancient world, and determined the sovereignty of Coele Syria.

Rafah (Arabic: رفح, IPA: [ˈɾɑfɑħ]) is a city in North Sinai and Egypt's eastern border with the Gaza Strip. It is the capital of Rafah center in North Sinai Governorate, and is situated on the eastern Mediterranean coast of Egypt. Rafah is the site of the Rafah Border Crossing, the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian government announced in early 2015 that it would raze the entire city and build a new settlement for its residents, in order to expand a security buffer between Egypt and Gaza Strip. The Egyptian military reportedly began bulldozing sections of Rafah in late 2014.

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.