AJC****April 3, 2025
The southern Gaza city of Rafah sits strategically along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and has become a major focal point during Israel's defensive war against Hamas.
Here is what to know about the strategic importance of Rafah, Israel's operation, and the future of the Israel-Hamas war.
The latest updates:
Driving the news:Israel has launched a major ground offensive in Rafah, aiming to cut off the city from the rest of Gaza and pressure Hamas into releasing hostages. Israeli forces have seized the "Morag Corridor," a new security zone south of Khan Younis, and intensified airstrikes across Gaza.
Why it matters: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israeli forces are establishing a new security corridor in southern Gaza that would effectively separate Rafah from the rest of the Strip, describing it as a "second Philadelphi" corridorin order to increase pressure on Hamas to release hostages. The Philadelphi Corridor is a narrow strip of land separating Egypt from Gaza. Hamas has used the border with Egypt as its main smuggling route to bring in weapons and goods to further its war efforts. Israel has maintained that its presence in the region is key to dismantling Hamas and prevent it from rearming, The announcement comes amid the IDF's renewed efforts in Gaza, with an additional division being deployed to southern Gaza alongside intense airstrikes and preparations for a substantial ground operation into the area.
The big picture:
What's next: Israel plans to expand its control over Gaza's border regions to continue to exert further pressure on Hamas to release the hostages.
Israel's past operations in Rafah:In May 2024, after months of deliberations and international concerns about the humanitarian impact, Israel launched a limited and phased operation to dismantle the remaining Hamas terror battalions in the city. At the time, some 1.4 million Palestinians resided in the city, with over a million Palestinians evacuating there since Israel launched its war to defend itself following the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023.
On October 17, 2024, Israeli officials confirmed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Rafah. By late June, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that Israel's operation in Rafah was nearing its end, with four Hamas battalions dismantled. During the operation, Israeli forces uncovered numerous Hamas tunnels in Rafah, including smuggling tunnels used for trafficking weapons and civilians, as we'll as tunnels used for storing weapons and moving terrorists. In September, the IDF recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages executed by Hamas, who had been held in a tunnel beneath Rafah.
Why is Rafah strategically important,and why did Israel launch an operation there in 2024?
To return the hostages kidnapped on October 7, prevent Hamas from carrying out another October 7-style massacre of Israelis, shut down the illegal weapons and people smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, end the Iran-backed terror groups influence over Gaza, and put pressure on Hamas to agree to a deal that will release Israeli hostages.
Every country has a moral obligation to not only protect the safety and security of its citizens but to rescue those taken hostage. Many Israeli analysts believe that pressuring Hamas in Rafah could force the terror organization to get serious about negotiating with Israel and releasing its prisoners. In February 2024, Israel carried out a successful and dramatic rescue operation in Rafah that freed two hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Luis Har, 70, who we're abducted from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7.
In addition, Rafah was the last remaining stronghold for Hamas military battalions and its leadership. Defeating Hamas remaining battalions in Gaza is needed to ensure that the Iran-backed terror group no longer has the ability to murder Israelis. Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction in its charter, hasrepeatedly promised to carry out more 10/7-style massacres against Israel.Hamas could easily use Rafah as a base to reassert control over the entire Gaza Strip if the war we're to end prematurely.
A campaign in Rafah is also essential to eliminate Hamas and other terrorist groups' underground network of smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. Shortly after Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip, throwing out the Palestinian Authority in a bloody coup in 2007, a tunnel industry began to thrive under the border between Gaza and Egypt. Hamas has operated most of these tunnels, collecting tolls and trafficking explosives, guns, rockets, and drones. Terrorists also have used the tunnels to go to and from Gaza in order to train in Iran and other countries.
Egypt has previously worked to destroy the tunnels, but smuggling remains a concern. Ridding the area of Hamas and destroying the tunnels once and for all is an Israeli security priority.
What steps did Israel take to protect civilians in Rafah?
While Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to keep Palestinian civilians out of harms way (more on that below), Hamas specifically puts Palestinian civilians in danger. For example, in Rafah, former IDF spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in 2024 that Hamas built everything in a civilian neighborhood among houses, among mosques, among the population in order to create its terror ecosystem. Time and again, Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields, purposely driving up the number of innocent Palestinians killed in the war while preserving the lives of the terrorist fighters.
Israel has implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties in urban warfare than any other military in the history of war. This includes many measures the U.S. has (or has not) taken in wars and battles but also many measures no military in the world has ever taken, asserts John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, a research center dedicated to the study of war and warfare.Read more of Spencers expert analysis.
In Rafah in 2024, Israel again deployed extraordinary steps to ensure Gazans we're not in harms way in Rafah. For instance, before Israel's targeted operation in eastern Rafah neighborhoods, hundreds of thousands of leaflets, phone calls, text messages, and social media posts in Arabic we're disseminated to ensure the approximately 100,000 Palestinian civilians in these areas we're evacuated out of harms way to an expanded humanitarian zone in the al-Mawasi and Khan Younis areas of southern Gaza.
The IDF said that the expanded humanitarian zone includes field hospitals and tent camps for displaced Palestinians, while the IDF noted that there has been a surge of humanitarian aid going into Gaza.