The
Rafah Border Crossing is an international border crossing between
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian and Palestinian-controlled
RafahRafah is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip, but also extends into the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Located south of Gaza, Rafah's population of 71,000 is overwhelmingly made up of Palestinian refugees. It serves as the district capital of the Rafah Governorate...
. It was built by the Israeli and Egyptian governments after the 1979
Israel-Egypt Peace TreatyThe 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in Washington, DC, United States, on March 26, 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords...
and 1982 Israeli withdrawal from the
Sinai PeninsulaThe Sinai Peninsula or Sinai The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai (sina; Egyptian Arabic: سينا sina; sina'a; is a triangular peninsula in Egypt. It lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, forming a land bridge between Africa and Southwest...
, and was managed by the
Israel Airports AuthorityThe Israel Airports Authority was founded in 1977 as a public corporation mandated by the Israel Airports Authority Law...
until it was evacuated on 11 September, 2005 as part of
Israel's unilateral disengagement planIsrael's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut") was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict...
. It has since become the mission of the
European Union Border Assistance Mission RafahThe European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah is, after the European Union Police Mission for the Gaza Strip , the EU's second Civilian Crisis Management Mission in the Gaza Strip. It is situated at the Rafah Border Crossing on the Palestinian-Egyptian border...
(EUBAM) to monitor the crossing.
The Rafah crossing was opened on 25 November 2005 and operated nearly daily until 25 June 2006.
The
Rafah Border Crossing is an international border crossing between
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian and Palestinian-controlled
RafahRafah is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip, but also extends into the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Located south of Gaza, Rafah's population of 71,000 is overwhelmingly made up of Palestinian refugees. It serves as the district capital of the Rafah Governorate...
. It was built by the Israeli and Egyptian governments after the 1979
Israel-Egypt Peace TreatyThe 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in Washington, DC, United States, on March 26, 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords...
and 1982 Israeli withdrawal from the
Sinai PeninsulaThe Sinai Peninsula or Sinai The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai (sina; Egyptian Arabic: سينا sina; sina'a; is a triangular peninsula in Egypt. It lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, forming a land bridge between Africa and Southwest...
, and was managed by the
Israel Airports AuthorityThe Israel Airports Authority was founded in 1977 as a public corporation mandated by the Israel Airports Authority Law...
until it was evacuated on 11 September, 2005 as part of
Israel's unilateral disengagement planIsrael's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut") was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict...
. It has since become the mission of the
European Union Border Assistance Mission RafahThe European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah is, after the European Union Police Mission for the Gaza Strip , the EU's second Civilian Crisis Management Mission in the Gaza Strip. It is situated at the Rafah Border Crossing on the Palestinian-Egyptian border...
(EUBAM) to monitor the crossing.
The Rafah crossing was opened on 25 November 2005 and operated nearly daily until 25 June 2006. Since then, it has been closed by Israel on 86% of days due to security reasons. It was not opened for the export of goods. In June 2007, it was closed entirely after the
HamasHamas is a Palestinian Islamic socio-political organization which includes a paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
takeover of the Gaza StripThe Battle of Gaza was a military conflict between Hamas and Fatah that took place between June 7 and June 15, 2007 in the Gaza Strip. It resulted in Hamas remaining in control of the Gaza Strip after forcing out Fatah...
.
The EU Ambassador to Israel said that EUBAM monitors could not return to man the crossing because the legal basis for EUBAM - the November 2005 agreement on movement and access - specified that the terminal was to be manned by the
FatahNot to be confused with Fatah Revolutionary Council also known as Abu Nidal OrganizationFataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the center-left of the spectrum...
-aligned
Force 17Force 17 is an elite commando and special operations unit of the Palestinian Fatah movement and later of the Office of the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority.Force 17 was formed in the early 1970s by senior Fatah militant Ali Hassan Salameh...
, who were no longer there.
On January 23, 2008, masked gunmen demolished the wall, that
HamasHamas is a Palestinian Islamic socio-political organization which includes a paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
-linked militants had apparently weakened in 2007, dividing the Egyptian and Palestinian portions of Rafah, and several hundred thousand Gazans entered Egypt, most of them to buy food and supplies. (See 2008 breach of the Gaza–Egypt border.)
On December 27, 2008, Egypt opened the crossing to care for the wounded after the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza (See
2008 Gaza Strip bombings2008 Gaza Strip bombings may refer to:*Operation Hot Winter, a military campaign between February 28, 2008, and March 3, 2008*Operation Cast Lead, a military campaign that began on December 27, 2008, as part of the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict...
.)
External links
See also
- Philadelphi Route
The Philadelphi Route was an IDF code name for the strip of land along the border between Egypt and Gaza Strip. Under the Oslo Accords, the portion in the Gaza Strip remained under direct Israeli military control...
- European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah
The European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah is, after the European Union Police Mission for the Gaza Strip , the EU's second Civilian Crisis Management Mission in the Gaza Strip. It is situated at the Rafah Border Crossing on the Palestinian-Egyptian border...
- 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict
The 2006 Israel–Gaza conflict refers to the series of battles between Palestinian militants and the Israel Defense Forces . Large-scale conventional warfare beyond the peripheries of the Gaza Strip began when Israel launched Operation Summer Rains , the codename for an IDF military operation in the...