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Rafah offensive
The Rafah offensive was an Israeli military offensive in and around the city of Rafah, beginning on 6 May 2024 as part of Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war. The operation focused on the Rafah Governorate along the Egypt–Gaza border, with Israeli officials saying the goals were to defeat remaining Hamas forces in the area and to secure the border corridor and the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
The operation began as ceasefire negotiations brokered by Egypt and Qatar failed. Israeli forces carried out airstrikes, entered the outskirts of Rafah, and seized the Rafah crossing, later moving into populated neighbourhoods. Fighting and security concerns also led to temporary closures of the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On 19 January 2025, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect, and the IDF withdrew from some parts of Rafah. On the night of 18 March 2025, Israel launched a surprise attack on the Gaza Strip, breaking the ceasefire. Israeli troops resumed ground operations in Rafah on 20 March 2025.
In May 2025, The offensive formally ended, when Israel had established operational control over Rafah and the border zone.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas and allied militants sparked the Gaza war by invading and attacking southern Israel, killing almost 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages. Following this, Israel retaliated by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, heavily bombing it, invading it, and conducting mass evacuations. Both Israel and Hamas were accused of war crimes.
Since the start of the war, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip sought shelter in the southernmost area of Rafah, near the Egyptian border. With other cities in Gaza depopulated, Rafah became the most populous city in the Palestinian territories, with more than 1.4 million people. Due to the large number of children among those displaced peoples, UNICEF termed Rafah "a city of children".
While Israeli politicians like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the offensive had emphasized about Israel controlling the Egypt–Gaza border near Rafah in order to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons from Egypt through underground tunnels, others accused of him using it as a pretext to avoid reaching a permanent ceasefire deal in exchange for the Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas. Per Nadav Argaman, a former director of Shin Bet, the number of weapons smuggled through tunnels beneath the border was minuscule as Egypt had dismantled most of the tunnel network, and most of the smuggling at the border was done through the Rafah border crossing, an assessment former Israeli national security advisor Eyal Hulata agreed with. An investigation by The New York Times found that nearly all of the underground tunnels were destroyed by Egypt after 2013. Per a report by The Jerusalem Post, Hamas used the border area mainly for launching rockets on Israel rather than for smuggling.
Airstrikes on Rafah started on 8 October 2023, and continued throughout the war. Israel announced its intentions to invade Rafah in February 2024, which met backlash from the international community. The United States, Israel's largest military supplier, also opposed an offensive.
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Rafah offensive
The Rafah offensive was an Israeli military offensive in and around the city of Rafah, beginning on 6 May 2024 as part of Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war. The operation focused on the Rafah Governorate along the Egypt–Gaza border, with Israeli officials saying the goals were to defeat remaining Hamas forces in the area and to secure the border corridor and the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
The operation began as ceasefire negotiations brokered by Egypt and Qatar failed. Israeli forces carried out airstrikes, entered the outskirts of Rafah, and seized the Rafah crossing, later moving into populated neighbourhoods. Fighting and security concerns also led to temporary closures of the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On 19 January 2025, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect, and the IDF withdrew from some parts of Rafah. On the night of 18 March 2025, Israel launched a surprise attack on the Gaza Strip, breaking the ceasefire. Israeli troops resumed ground operations in Rafah on 20 March 2025.
In May 2025, The offensive formally ended, when Israel had established operational control over Rafah and the border zone.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas and allied militants sparked the Gaza war by invading and attacking southern Israel, killing almost 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages. Following this, Israel retaliated by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, heavily bombing it, invading it, and conducting mass evacuations. Both Israel and Hamas were accused of war crimes.
Since the start of the war, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip sought shelter in the southernmost area of Rafah, near the Egyptian border. With other cities in Gaza depopulated, Rafah became the most populous city in the Palestinian territories, with more than 1.4 million people. Due to the large number of children among those displaced peoples, UNICEF termed Rafah "a city of children".
While Israeli politicians like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the offensive had emphasized about Israel controlling the Egypt–Gaza border near Rafah in order to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons from Egypt through underground tunnels, others accused of him using it as a pretext to avoid reaching a permanent ceasefire deal in exchange for the Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas. Per Nadav Argaman, a former director of Shin Bet, the number of weapons smuggled through tunnels beneath the border was minuscule as Egypt had dismantled most of the tunnel network, and most of the smuggling at the border was done through the Rafah border crossing, an assessment former Israeli national security advisor Eyal Hulata agreed with. An investigation by The New York Times found that nearly all of the underground tunnels were destroyed by Egypt after 2013. Per a report by The Jerusalem Post, Hamas used the border area mainly for launching rockets on Israel rather than for smuggling.
Airstrikes on Rafah started on 8 October 2023, and continued throughout the war. Israel announced its intentions to invade Rafah in February 2024, which met backlash from the international community. The United States, Israel's largest military supplier, also opposed an offensive.
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