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Rafah, the city in southern Gaza, is distinct from the border crossing and the Egyptian city of the same name, on the other side of the border. Where does Israel's 'limited' invasion stand and how did Egypt prepare?

Since the early days of the current Gaza war, Rafah, in southern Gaza, has been a subject of debate and contestation. For months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to operate in the area where some 1.2 million Palestinians are sheltering, calling it the last Hamas stronghold and the final impediment to his oft-repeated "total victory."

Opponents of the plan, among them leaders the world over, including that of Israel's closest ally, the United States, and aid organizations, have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe should Israel enter Rafah.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing that connects Gaza with Egypt. Already, dozens of Palestinian deaths have been reported as a result of what Israel says is a "limited incursion."

Israel committed to the U.S. and Egypt to restrict its operation, aiming only to deny Hamas authority over the border crossing, and concentrating on the eastern side of the city.

Rafah: city and border crossing

While the two are sometimes discussed interchangeably, the Rafah border crossing takes its name from the city of Rafah, which is situated in southern Gaza, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Gaza City in the enclave's north.

The city's regular population of a few hundred thousand Palestinians ballooned to over a million – about half of Gaza's entire population – when residents of Gaza City and Khan Yunis were evacuated from their homes ahead of Israel's ground invasions there. The vast majority of displaced people are still believed to be sheltering in Rafah, crammed into makeshift tents, where the imminent threat of famine and disease looms large.

The Rafah border crossing, on the other hand, is a 12 kilometer (7 mile) strip of land that separates Egypt from the Gaza Strip. Like other hotspots in the region, control of the crossing has changed hands over time through wars, agreements, treaties and attacks. It is Gaza's only crossing not directly controlled by Israel, with the flow of people, commercial goods and humanitarian aid technically coordinated by Egyptian and Palestinian authorities. Nevertheless, since Israel's 2007 blockade, the crossing is closely monitored by Israel and only intermittently open to Palestinians.

According to a United Nations report, the Rafah crossing was open for 245 days in 2022 and 138 days in 2023, before it became all but inoperable at the start of the war on October 7.

Rafah, Egypt

Just over the border, on the Egyptian side of the crossing, is another city, also called Rafah. The shared name is no coincidence – historically, it was all one city, but when Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, the newly demarcated border divided the area into two separate cities, one in Egypt, the other in Gaza. For as long as Israel has threatened to invade Gaza's Rafah, Egypt has loudly condemned any potential military operation into the city. Even as Israeli tanks rolled in this week, the Egyptian government issued a statement calling the move "a dangerous escalation."

But since the beginning of the war, Egypt's words have not necessarily matched its actions. A week after Hamas attacked Israel's southern communities on October 7, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told an interviewer on BBC's Newshour that from Egypt's perspective, "the Rafah crossing on our side is officially open." The Egyptian government also asked Israel to halt strikes near the border so that the crossing could serve as a "support lifeline" for people in Gaza.

But reports that Egyptian authorities were severely limiting the influx of Gazans looking to escape the war by entering Egypt, to prevent the mass displacement of Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula, began to emerge. In February, the Associated Press published satellite photos which showed construction of a wall on the Egyptian side of the crossing, part of a "buffer zone" to accommodate Palestinians should a Rafah offensive prompt an exodus en masse, sources told Reuters at the time.

Last month, top Israeli and Egyptian military and intelligence officials reportedly met in Cairo to discuss the Rafah issue. At the time, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk published a statement attributed to an Egyptian source saying that any invasion of Rafah would violate the Israel-Egypt peace treaty and receive a decisive response from Cairo.

But as Axios reported at the time, the meeting, which was said to include Ronen Bar, the head of Israel's security agency the Shin Bet, and Herzl Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, alongside Abbas Kamel,

the head of Egypt's intelligence service, and Osama Askar, the chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, concluded with an announcement by Israel that it was "moving ahead" with the assault on Rafah. In a somewhat perplexing statement released after the meeting, Egyptian security officials asserted that coordination between Egypt and Israel regarding the assault on Rafah did not imply the country's approval of the operation.

It's one explanation for why Egypt has taken such an active role in the latest round of negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release deal. While the country is proving to be largely powerless to actually prevent an Israel military invasion into Rafah, the Egyptians appear to have pinned their hopes on a deal to that would see Israel's hostages returned and, potentially, a sustained cease-fire that could prevent a realization of their primary concern, namely an influx of refugees over the border.