The Rafah offensive was a military offensive undertaken by the Israel Defense Forces against Hamas' Rafah Brigade in 2024 amid the Israel-Hamas War. After months of threatening to invade Rafah, Hamas' last strongholds in the Gaza Strip, Israel ignored international political pressure and launched its offensive on 6 May 2024.
Background[]
The start of Israel's invasion of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on 27 October 2023 led to a mass influx of evacuated Palestinian civilians from northern and central Gaza to the border city of Rafah, which came to have more than 1.4 million inhabitants due to displacements. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt was utilized by the United Nations to deliver humanitarian aid to the starving Gazans, but the prospect of a refugee crisis developed as the Israel Defense Forces moved into Khan Yunis and made preparations for a final push to capture Rafah.

The Israeli bombing of Rafah
On 27 January 2024, Israel notified Egypt that it was planning to take control of the Philadelphi Corridor buffer zone on the Gaza-Egypt border, despite Egyptian opposition. On 2 February, Israel announced that it would begin moving into Rafah after declaring victory in Khan Yunis, and, the next day, Israeli airstrikes targeted eastern and central Rafah, killing 28 people. By 4 February, 92 civilians were killed as Israeli attacks intensified, and, on 7 February, Israel told the United States of its intention to expand ground operations in Rafah. On 8 February, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF to prepare to invade Rafah, while having them plan for the evacuation of Rafah's population on 9 February. That same day, the Israeli government claimed that the elimination of Hamas was impossible without the destruction of the four Hamas battalions in Rafah; Egypt, anticipating a refugee crisis, dispatched 40 tanks to the Rafah border before building earthen berms and security checkpoints. Israeli airstrikes continued, killing over 100 people on 12 February 2024 after striking the Kuwait Hospital and launching helicopter attacks along the border areas. Palestinian refugees trickled back to Khan Yunis, Maghazi, Deir el-Balah, and Nuseirat, while Egypt built a refugee camp capable of holding 100,000 people. On 14 February, the UN announced that it would not be involved in an evacuation of Rafah, as it did not participate in forced, non-voluntary evacuations. By 16 February, Israel announced that it was in the process of planning its offensive, despite the United Nations warning that an offensive would create a humanitarian catastrophe. By 17 February, Palestinian civilians were stopping UN aid trucks to take food, while Israel's killing of Rafah police for truck convoys had made the safe distribution of food virtually impossible. On 18 February, Israel announced its intention to initiate its Rafah offensive on the first day of Ramadan, 10 March, unless Hamas freed all Israeli hostages.
Foreign pressure continued to delay Israel's offensive against Rafah, although intense airstrikes continued. Even as Hamas became more amenable to a ceasefire in late April and early May, Israel insisted on harsher terms, while Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government swore to destory Hamas whether a ceasefire was achieved or not. On 6 May 2024, Hamas agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that would see a 6-week ceasefire and prisoner exchange, but the Israeli war cabinet voted to invade Rafah nonetheless. That same day, Israel struck Rafah at least 50 times, killing 26 people.
Offensive[]
On the evening of 6 May, Israel began a limited invasion of Rafah, with IDF tanks approaching the Rafah crossing and Egyptian border. The IDF was soon able to capture the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, claiming that it had done so to prevent arms from being smuggled to Hamas and to apply pressure to Hamas to accept their own ceasefire terms. As Israel appeared poised to launch its final offensive against Rafah, the United States halted a pending arms shipment and threatened to cut off arms supplies if Israel went ahead with the invasion without first evacuating the civilian populace. On 9 May 2024, as ceasefire talks in Cairo failed, Israel embarked on its offensive, with tanks and airstrikes pounding Rafah, killing more than 65 civilians and forcing 80,000 people to flee. On 14 May, the IDF entered the city proper, advancing into the Brazil, Jneina, and al-Salam neighborhoods of eastern Rafah as clashes intensified. On 16 May, the Oz Brigade was dispatched to Rafah to assist with the offensive. On 20 May, the IDF killed more than 130 Palestinian fighters along the Philadelphi Corridor. Israeli troops advanced to the outskirts of Rafah's western Yibna suburb on 22 May, bombing the neighborhood and some fishing boats on Rafah's beach. The Nahal Brigade became the fifth to be deployed to Rafah that same day. On 24 May, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must halt military operations in Rafah due to the risk of destoriny its population, but four of the five ICJ judges wrote that the offensive could continue only if Israel prevented genocidal acts.
On 27 May, IDF tanks intensified their assault on eastern and southern Rafah. That same day, Egyptian Army troops fired on IDF troops who pursued Palestinian militants into Egypt, resulting in a shootout that left one Egyptian soldier dead and one wounded, while several Israeli soldiers were wounded. At the same time, the Kuwaiti Hospital shut down its operations as its staff members shifted to a field hospital, and the IDF continued bombing Rafah overnight. On 28 May, the IDF's tanks and armored vehicles entered central Rafah for the first time, resulting in heavy fighting.