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Rafah
Arabic رفح
Government City
Governorate Rafah
Population 155,000 (2006)
Jurisdiction  dunams
Head of Municipality Sa’ad Zoarub

Rafah (Arabic: رفح‎) is a Palestinian town in the Gaza Strip, on the Egyptian border, and a nearby town on the Egyptian side of the border, on the Sinai Peninsula. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language The following is a list of cities in Palestinian National Authority administrated areas, although depending on which particular area each locality is located After the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian territories were divided into three areas (Area A Area B and Area C and 16 Governorates under the jurisdiction The Rafah Governorate (محافظة رفح is an administrative district of the Palestinian National Authority in the southernmost portion of the Gaza Strip A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum is a unit of Area used in the Ottoman Empire and still used in various standardized versions Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Palestinian people or Palestinians ( الشعب الفلسطيني, ash-sha`b al-filasTīni; الفلسطينيون, al-filasTīnīyyūn The Gaza Strip (قطاع غزة, רצועת עזה Retzu'at 'Azza) is a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Egypt on the south-west This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai ( Coptic: sina; Egyptian Arabic: sina سينا Arabic, sina'a سيناء Over the ages it has been known as "Robihwa" by the ancient Egyptians, "Rafihu" by the Assyrians, "Raphia" by the Greeks and Romans, "Raphiaḥ" by Israelites (as well as in Modern Hebrew) and now "Rafah". Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC See also History of ancient Israel and Judah According to the Bible, the Israelites were the dominant group living in the Land of Israel. The Aramaic text Targum Onkelos interpreted the Biblical location of Hazerim as referring to Rafah, but there is no other evidence for this. Targum Onkelos (or Unkelus) is the official eastern ( Babylonian) Targum to the Torah.

It is the largest town on the Gaza Strip - Egypt border, with a population of approximately 130,000, of which some 84,000 live in the two refugee camps about it, Canada Camp (Tell as-Sultan Camp) to the north, and Rafah camp to the south. The Gaza Strip (قطاع غزة, רצועת עזה Retzu'at 'Azza) is a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Egypt on the south-west This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. A refugee camp is a temporary camp built by a government the United Nations, international organizations (such as the Red Cross) or NGOs to receive [1] It serves as the district capital of the Rafah Governorate. The Rafah Governorate (محافظة رفح is an administrative district of the Palestinian National Authority in the southernmost portion of the Gaza Strip Yasser Arafat International Airport, Gaza's only airport, is located just south of the city; the airport operated from 1998 to 2001. Yasser Arafat International Airport (مطار ياسر عرفات الدولي transliterated: Matar Yasir 'Arafat ad-Dowaly, formerly Gaza International Airport Rafah is the site of the Rafah Border Crossing, the only crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Contents

History

Ancient period

Rafah has a history stretching back thousands of years. It was first recorded in an inscription of Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I, from 1303 BC, and as the first stop on Pharaoh Shoshenq I's campaign to the Levant in 925 BC. Pharaoh is the title given in modern parlance to the ancient Egyptian kings of all periods Menmaatre Seti I (also called Sethos I after the Greeks) was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt ( Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt) the son of Ramesses Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I ( Egyptian ššnq) also known as Shishak, Sheshonk or Sheshonq I (for discussion of the spelling See also Names of the Levant The Levant (lə'vænt is a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia, roughly bounded on the north by the

In 720 BC it was the site of the Assyrian king Sargon II's victory over the Egyptians, and in 217 BC the Battle of Raphia was fought between the victorious Ptolemy IV and Antiochus III. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Sargon II ( Akkadian Šarru-kinu "legitimate king" reigned 722 – 705 BC was an Assyrian king This article is about the contemporary North African ethnic group The Battle of Raphia, also known as the Battle of Gaza, was a battle of the Syrian Wars fought on 22 June 217 BC near modern Rafah Ptolemy IV Philopator ( Greek:, Ptolemaĩos Philopátōr, reigned 221-205 BC son of Ptolemy III and Berenice II of Egypt was Antiochus III the Great, ( Greek; ca 241&ndash187 BC ruled 222&ndash187 BC younger son of Seleucus II Callinicus (It is said to be the largest battle ever fought in the Levant, with over a hundred thousand soldiers and hundreds of elephants). Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea.

During the Byzantine period, it was a Diocese, and an important trading city during the early Arab period, however it steadily declined and was likely abandoned by the 12th century. In many rites of the Roman Catholic Church and in Anglican churches, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administered by a Bishop. The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding By the Mameluk period it was recorded as a postal station, and 16th century Ottoman records show a small village of 16 taxpayers. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish

The 20th century

In 1917 the British army captured Rafah, and it was used as a base for their attack on Gaza. The Battle of Rafa was a World War I battle that took place at the outpost of Rafa (known today as Rafah) on the border between the Egyptian Sinai The First Battle of Gaza was a World War I battle on the southern border of Palestine. The presence of the army bases was an economic draw that brought people back to the city, and in 1922 it had a population of 600. By 1948 the population had risen to 2,500. After the Israeli War of Independence, the refugee camps were established, and when Israel captured it with the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip during the 1967 Six-Day War, the population was about 55,000, of whom only 11,000 lived in Rafah itself. The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai ( Coptic: sina; Egyptian Arabic: sina سينا Arabic, sina'a سيناء Background Suez Crisis aftermath The Suez Crisis of 1956 represented a military defeat but a political victory for Egypt

Rafah is at the bottom of map.
Rafah is at the bottom of map.

In the summer of 1971, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), under General Ariel Sharon (then head of the IDF southern command), destroyed approximately five hundred houses in the refugee camps of Rafah in order to create patrol roads for Israeli forces. The Israel Defense Forces ( IDF) (צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, lit (אריאל The Israeli Southern Command (פיקוד דרום transliterated: Pikud Darom) often abbreviated to Padam (פד"מ is a regional The demolitions in Rafah displaced nearly four thousand people. Israel established the Brazil and Canada housing projects to accommodate displaced Palestinians as well as to provide better conditions in the hopes of integrating the refugees into the general population and its standard of living;[2] Brazil is to the immediate south of Rafah, whereas Canada was located just across the border in Sinai. Both were named because UN peacekeeping troops from those respective countries had maintained barracks in those locations. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security After the 1978 Camp David Accords mandated the repatratiation of Canada project refugees to the Gaza Strip, the Tel al-Sultan project, to the northwest of Rafah, was built to accommodate them. The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 17, [3]

Rafah Border Crossing

Rafah is the site of the Rafah Border Crossing, the only crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. The Rafah Border Crossing ( تقاطع حدود رفح, מעבר רפיח) is an international border crossing between Egyptian and Palestinian-controlled Formerly operated by Israeli military forces, control of the crossing was transferred to the Palestinian Authority in September 2005 as part of the larger Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israel's unilateral disengagement plan ( Hebrew: תוכנית ההתנתקות Tokhnit HaHitnatkut or תוכנית ההינתקות Tokhnit HaHinatkut in A European Union commission began monitoring the crossing in November 2005 amid Israeli security concerns, and in April 2006 Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Presidential Guard assumed responsibility for the site. The European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah (EU BAM Rafah is after the EU Police Mission for the Gaza Strip (EU COPPS the EU's second Civilian Crisis Management Mission Mahmoud Abbas (محمود عباس (born March 26, 1935) also known by the kunya Abu Mazen (ابو مازن was elected President [4]

On 2 am on January 23, 2008, the border crossing was breached after gunmen set off an explosion nearby, destroying part of the Israeli Gaza Strip barrier. Over the next four days, approximately 700,000 Palestinians crossed into Egypt, most planning to buy supplies and return to Gaza. Palestinian people or Palestinians ( الشعب الفلسطيني, ash-sha`b al-filasTīni; الفلسطينيون, al-filasTīnīyyūn A smaller number of Egyptians crossed into Gaza.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/populati/pop16.aspx
  2. ^ http://www.shaml.org/publications/monos/mono4.htm
  3. ^ Human Rights Watch. The Battle of Gaza ( معركة غزّة) was a Military conflict between Hamas and Fatah which took place between June 7 and The European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah (EU BAM Rafah is after the EU Police Mission for the Gaza Strip (EU COPPS the EU's second Civilian Crisis Management Mission Rafah Elementary Co-Ed “B” School is a School in Rafah, a town in the Gaza Strip, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine The Rafah Governorate (محافظة رفح is an administrative district of the Palestinian National Authority in the southernmost portion of the Gaza Strip Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip. October 2004.
  4. ^ Mitch Potter, Something that works: the Rafah crossing, The Toronto Star, May 21, 2006.

External links

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