12 February 2024 Rafah strikes

The 2024 Rafah hostage raid, dubbed Operation Golden Hand (Hebrew: מבצע יד זהב) by the Israel Defense Forces, was a military raid and hostage rescue operation conducted in cooperation with the Shin Bet and Yamam (Israel's National Counter-Terror Unit, part of the Israeli Police) to recover two Israeli civilians kidnapped during the Nir Yitzhak attack on 7 October 2023. The operation commenced on February 12, 2024, at 1:49 AM during combat in the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war, and ended successfully with the rescue of the hostages, along with a soldier who was lightly injured during the operation. At least 74 Palestinians were killed by Israel in the early morning airstrikes used as cover for the operation, though other estimates produced numbers closer to 100.

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.

Al-Brazil is a neighborhood in the city of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, one of the Palestinian territories. It lies in the South, by the border with Egypt. It was named after Brazil due to the presence of Brazilian soldiers in the United Nations Emergency Force which operated in Gaza in the 1950s-60s (the so-called Suez Battalion). There's another version of the origin of the name which sustains that it was only named Al-Brazil in the 1990s, when Brazil financed renovations there.

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.

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.

On 23 January 2008, Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip set off an explosion near the Rafah border crossing, destroying part of the 2003 wall. The United Nations estimates that as many as half the 1.5 million population of the Gaza Strip crossed the border into Egypt seeking food and supplies. Due to fears that militants would acquire weapons in Egypt, Israeli police went on increased alert.Egypt had closed the Rafah border crossing in June 2007, days before the Hamas took control of Gaza at the end of the Fatah-Hamas conflict; The breach followed a blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel beginning in part that same June, with fuel supply reductions in October 2007. A total blockade had begun on 17 January 2008 following a rise in rocket attacks on Israel emanating from Gaza.Although Israel demanded Egypt reseal the border due to security concerns, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered his troops to allow crossings to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, while verifying that the Gazans did not attempt to bring weapons back into Gaza. In five days, Gazans spent some US$250 million in the North Sinai Governorate's capital of Arish alone. The sudden enormous demand there for staple products led to large local price rises and some shortages. On 24 January, the United Nations Human Rights Council condemned Israel for the fifteenth time in less than two years, calling the blockade collective punishment. However, the proceedings were boycotted by Israel and the United States. On 27 January, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised that Israel would no longer disrupt the supply of food, medicine and necessary energy into the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, President Mubarak announced plans to meet separately with representatives of Hamas and Fatah in order to come to a new border control agreement.On 3 February, Gaza's Foreign minister, Mahmoud al-Zahar, announced that Hamas and Egypt would cooperate in controlling the border without Israeli control, "perhaps jointly with Abbas". Abbas' Government said that Egypt had agreed to restore the 2005 border agreement giving Abbas control over the Rafah crossing, but excluding Hamas. Israel, on the other hand resisted Abbas' control of any crossing point. The border was closed—except to travelers returning home—eleven days after the breach.

In 2004, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Rainbow in Cloud (Hebrew: מבצע קשת בענן, romanized: Mivtza Keshet Be-Anan) in the southern Gaza Strip on 12–24 May 2004, involving an invasion and siege of Rafah. The operation was started after the deaths of eleven Israeli soldiers in two Palestinian attacks, in which M113 armored vehicles were attacked. Human Rights Watch reported 59 Palestinians killed during 12–24 May, including 11 under age eighteen and 18 armed men. The IDF razed some 300 homes to expand the buffer zone along the Egypt–Gaza border, expanding it far inside the Gaza Strip. Also, a zoo and at least 700 dunams (70 ha) of agricultural land were destroyed. Israel's declared aims of Operation Rainbow were finding and destroying smuggling tunnels, targeting terrorists, and securing the Philadelphi Route by expanding the buffer zone.

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.

Canada Camp was a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern Sinai near Rafah, formed in 1972 and evacuated in 2000. The Camp was named after the Canadian contingent of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF I), which formerly had a camp at the location. Most refugees were relocated to Tel al-Sultan in southern Gaza.

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.

Yazan al-Kafarneh (Arabic: يزن الكفارنة) was a Palestinian boy with cerebral palsy who died from malnourishment on 4 March 2024, aged 10. He died during the ongoing Gaza Strip famine caused by the tightening of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war. He became a face for the children in Gaza and the Gaza Strip famine, with his image used by politicians and international organizations.