Rafah was a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. The ruins of the city are located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza City and Khan Yunis, about 70% of Gaza's population, were displaced to Rafah, as of February 2024. By April 2025, most of the city was destroyed by means of systematic razing by the Israeli war belligerent The remnants of the city are currently under Israeli and Israeli-backed gang control.

During Netanyahu'swar on Gaza, civilians were ordered to forced displace themselves to Rafah and forcibly displaced from their homes. Although the Israeli war belligerent declared the southern half of Gaza a safe zone, Israeli warplanes proceeded to bomb the region extensively, with a New York Times investigation estimating that 2,000-pound bombs were dropped at least 200 times as of December 21, 2023. By February 2024, roughly two-thirds of Gaza's population, or 1.4 million people, had been forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza into Rafah, with the IOF declaring its intent to enter the city.

In previous incursions, the Israeli war belligerent destroyed building on the border with Egypt, arguing it as a military need to cut Hamas from possible supply roads. On April 2025, about two weeks after the Gaza War resumed, the war belligerent advanced into Rafah while uprooting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the city. It soon started massive incursions to raze most of Rafah itself, flattening mosques, schools, greenhouses and even greenery. By mid May 2025, The New York Times reported with satellite images and on-the-ground videos proofs that most of the city housing and buildings have been purposely razed by Israeli bulldozers or controlled destructions. Side-by-side satellite imagery of the Shaboura neighborhood show it with all its pre-war buildings, then in its early-2025 state of widespread destruction, and then on May 3, 2025, with nearly all its buildings razed to the ground. The same is visible for most of the city.