Rafah, Egypt
Rafah
رفح | |
|---|---|
Rafah Location in Egypt | |
| Coordinates: 31°17′19″N 34°14′28″E / 31.28861°N 34.24111°E | |
| Country | Egypt |
| Governorate | North Sinai |
| Area | |
• Total | 176.4 sq mi (456.9 km2) |
| Population (2021) | |
• Total | 80,823 |
| • Density | 458.2/sq mi (176.9/km2) |
| • Ethnicities | Bedouin Arabs and Egyptians |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
Rafah (Arabic: رفح, IPA: [ˈɾɑfɑħ]) is a city in North Sinai and Egypt's eastern border with the Gaza Strip, Palestine. 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. Following the 2013 military coup, the new 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 the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian military began bulldozing sections of Rafah in late 2014. By 2021, the Egyptian military had demolished at least 7,460 buildings in Rafah.