[6] After the 1948 Palestine war, Egypt governed the area and refugee camps for displaced Palestinians who fled or were expelled from what became Israel were established.

During the mid-1930s, the British enhanced the border control and Rafah evolved as a small boundary town that functioned as a trade and services centre for the semi-settled Beduin population.

Families were separated, property was divided and many houses and orchards were cut across and destroyed by the new boundary, bulldozed, allegedly for security reasons.

[26] In the 1997 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) census, Rafah and its adjacent camp had a combined population of 91,181, Tall as-Sultan was listed with a further 17,141.

[34] It was represented at the Council of Ephesus 431 CE by Bishop Romanus, but today remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church[35] but a small Greek Orthodox presence exists.

Rafah was one of the towns captured by the Rashidun army under general 'Amr ibn al-'As in 635 CE, and subsequently was an important trading city during the Early Muslim period.

It had a population of 15 households, all Muslim, who paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, occasional revenues, goats and/or bee hives.

French explorer Victor Guérin, who visited Rafah in May 1863, noted two pillars of granite which the locals called Bab el Medinet, meaning "The Gate of the town".

[40] In 1881, Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria wrote: "Fragments of gray granite pillars, still standing, are here to be met with about the road, the fields, and the sand, and we saw one lying on the ground half buried...

The pillars are the remains of an ancient temple, Raphia, and are of special importance in the eyes of the Arabs, who call them Rafah, as they mark the boundary between Egypt and Syria.

The presence of British military bases in Rafah served an economic draw which led to an influx of internal migration to the city.

[22] Nine years later, the Mandatory authorities conducted the 1931 census of Palestine, by which time Rafah's population had increased to 1,423 residents living in 228 houses, all of which were still Muslim.

[50] During the early months of First Intifada on 25 April 1989 Rafah resident Khaled Musa Armilat, aged 22, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in Khan Yunis.

It has been claimed that it was in order to cope with the division of the town, that smugglers have made tunnels under the border, connecting the two parts and permitting the smuggling of goods and persons.

[54] During the Israeli Defence Forces' (IDF) war on Gaza, civilians were told to flee to Rafah and forcibly displaced from their homes.

[55] By February 2024, roughly two-thirds of Gaza's population, or 1.4 million people, had been forcibly displaced from other parts of the territory into Rafah, with the IDF declaring its intent to enter the city.

Critics have warned about the potential for mass civilian casualties in the event of a ground invasion, with the UN secretary general António Guterres arguing that "Such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.

[58][59][60] On 11 February, The Wall Street Journal reported that Egypt had warned Hamas to release hostages within two weeks or face an IDF invasion of Rafah.

[61][62] A joint operation in Rafah by the IDF, Shin Bet, and Israel Police recovered two hostages (Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har) kidnapped by Hamas from Nir Yitzhak.

[63] During this operation, heavy bombardment by the IDF occurred in the area that includes many refugee camps killing 112 people with several bodies still under the rubble.