3. Rafah Distrit

Rafah District is located south of Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt from the south, Khan-Yunis district from the north, the Mediterranean Sea from the West, and the Green line (border with Israel) from the East. Its size is about 55,000 acres, and its population is about 120,386 inhabitants, divided into 10 neighborhoods.  Although Rafah District is on the Mediterranean Sea, its climate is similar to that of a desert: very hot in the summer, cold in winter.  Palestinian refugees constitute the largest part of the population (100,893) i.e. 83.9% of them live in the town center (the camp).  Figures taken from the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, year 2000.

Life for Palestinians in Rafah lacks basic infrastructure, such as paved roads, modern networks of water and electricity, and a modern system of sewage disposal.  Moreover, there are piles of waste between buildings in all the neighborhoods.  This miserable situation came as a result of the Israeli military occupation almost 30 years, during which the Israeli authorities obviously didn’t put much care into developing those basic services.

Despite the fact that Rafah is situated in a strategic location from a local point of view, since it has the land crossing to Egypt, the “Sofa” trade crossing (with Israel) and Gaza International Airport, still the Israeli occupation forces have overall control on all those important points.  This fact limits the possibility for development and investment, and so it is unlikely that the economic situation in Rafah will improve in the near future.