What is happening in Gaza’s Rafah as Israel threatens to attack?
Al Jazeera
Over a million Palestinians are trapped at Gaza’s southernmost point, with the Israeli army preparing a ground attack.
Rafah, a looming Israeli ground “operation”, and the impact on more than a million trapped civilians are top headlines.
But what is Rafah and what are the details around this announced Israeli “operation”?
Rafah straddles the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
On the Palestinian side, it is the name of Gaza’s southernmost governorate and its capital city, as well as of the crossing into Egypt’s Sinai. On the Egyptian side, it is a city in the North Sinai governorate.
Palestinian Rafah is 64sq km (25sq miles) and, as Israel assaulted Gaza these past four months, more and more people have been herded into it by Israeli forces who keep promising safety “further south” – which never materialised.
