All Eyes on Rafah

[1][2][3] The phrase derives from a comment made by Richard "Rik" Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's representative for Gaza and the West Bank,[4][5][6] when he told journalists at the UN in February 2024 that "All eyes are on Rafah".

By February 2024, when Israel announced the operation, nearly half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million had been pushed into Rafah due to Israeli orders for Palestinians to evacuate there and actions elsewhere in the strip.

[14] In late May 2024, an AI-generated image depicting the phrase had been shared more than 47 million times in the space of a few days on Instagram,[7] going viral on social media following the Tel al-Sultan attack.

[18] 'All Eyes on Rafah' also gained notable traction within the association football community, as the image was posted by many professional footballers, including Arsenal's William Saliba, Barcelona’s João Cancelo, Paris St. Germain's Ousmane Dembélé, Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson, Atalanta's Gianluca Scamacca, AC Milan's Rafael Leão, Inter Milan's Marcus Thuram, 2023 women's Ballon D'Or winner Aitana Bonmatí, and BBC broadcaster Gary Lineker.

Users taking part in the Boycott Bollywood trend asked Indian actors who had shared the image why they did not also speak out about attacks on Hindus in other countries, such as Pakistan.