Inside Rafah: 2 months after Israel’s invasion, little remains except rubble
Two months ago, before Israeli troops invaded Rafah, the city sheltered most of Gaza’s more than 2 million people. Today it is a dust-covered ghost town.
Abandoned, bullet-ridden apartment buildings have blasted out walls and shattered windows. Bedrooms and kitchens are visible from roads dotted with rubble piles that tower over the Israeli military vehicles passing by. Very few civilians remain.
For the first time since Gaza’s southernmost city was invaded on May 6, the Israeli military accompanied international media into Rafah on Wednesday. Israel has barred international journalists from entering Gaza independently since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
According to the United Nations (UN), around 1.4 million Palestinians crammed into Rafah after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza. The UN estimates that around 50,000 remain in Rafah, which had a pre-conflict population of about 275,000.
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