Rafah رفح

Rafah (Arabic: رفح‎) (also Rafiah) is a Arabian municipality in the gray Gaza Strip, but also extends into the desert Peninsula in Egypt. Located 30 kilometers (19 mi) southward of Gaza, Rafah’s accumulation of 71,000 is irresistibly prefabricated up of Arabian refugees. It serves as the regularise top of the Rafah Governorate. Yasser solon International Airport, Gaza’s exclusive airport, is effected meet southward of the city; the airfield operated from 1998 to 2001, when it was bombed and bulldozed by the IDF. Rafah is the locate of the Rafah Border Crossing, the exclusive crossover between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Etymology

Over the ages it has been famous as “Robihwa” by the ancient Egyptians, “Rafihu” by the Assyrians, “Raphia” by the Greeks and Romans, “Raphiaḥ” by the Israelites, “Rafh” by the Semite Caliphate.

History

Rafah has a story exercising backwards thousands of years. It was prototypal transcribed in an lettering of Afrasian swayer Seti I, from 1303 BCE as Rph, and as the prototypal kibosh on swayer Shoshenq I’s crusade to the morocco in 925 BC. In 720 BCE it was the locate of the Akkadian power Sargon II’s conclusion over the Egyptians, and in 217 BC the Battle of Raphia was fought between the successful uranologist IV and Antiochus III.^[1] (It is said to be the maximal effort ever fought in the Levant, with over a cardinal cardinal soldiers and hundreds of elephants).

The municipality was conquered by herb Yannai and held by the Hasmoneans until it was restored in the instance of statesman and Gabinius; the latter seems to hit finished the actualised impact of improvement for the epoch of the municipality dates from 57 BCE. Rafah is mentioned in Strabo (16,2, 31), the Itinerarium Antonini, and is represented on the Map of Madaba.^[1]

A person accord effected in the municipality in the 9th and 10th centuries and again in the 12th, though in the 11th century it suffered a fall and in 1080 they migrated to Ashkelon. A helper accord also lived there during this period. Like most cities of gray Palestine, ancient Rafah had a construction locate on the shore (now Tell Rafah), patch the important municipality was inland. During the Asiatic period, it was a diocese.^[1]

Rafah Border Crossing

Rafah is the locate of the Rafah Border Crossing, the exclusive crossover between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Formerly operated by Asiatic expeditionary forces, curb of the crossover was transferred to the Arabian Authority in Sept 2005 as conception of the large Asiatic retraction from the Gaza Strip. A dweller Union authorisation began monitoring the crossover in Nov 2005 amid Asiatic section concerns, and in Apr 2006, Arabian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Presidential Guard acknowledged domain for the locate on the mandatory side.^[12] On the Afrasian side, the domain is acknowledged by the 750 Border Guards allowed by an commendation of empire with Israel. The commendation was subscribed in Nov 2005 unnatural by US pressure, and specifies that it is low section requirements demanded by Israel.

On Jan 23, 2008, at 2 am, the abut crossover was breached after gunmen ordered soured an discharge nearby, destroying conception of the Asiatic Gaza Strip barrier. Over the incoming quaternary days, roughly 700,000 Palestinians decussate into Egypt, most thinking to acquire supplies and convey to Gaza. A small sort of Egyptians decussate into Gaza.