According to reports in Arabic media, IDF units in Rafah reached the Mediterranean coast this weekend, having made their way through this strategically crucial border city. The Jerusalem Post considers Rafah’s long Jewish history:

The Jewish presence in Rafah dates back to the Hasmonean era (167–63 BCE) when King Alexander Yannai of Judea conquered the town. Rafah remained under Jewish control until the Roman general Pompey the Great captured it in 63 BCE. . . . Rafah was noted in significant works such as Strabo’s Geographica and the Oxyrhynchus Papyri during the Roman period, highlighting its prominence in the region.

The Jewish community of Rafah probably reached a high point during the Islamic era, and especially during the 9th and 10th centuries.

Despite facing declines around 1080, when many Jews migrated to Ashkelon, the community experienced a resurgence in the 12th century. Liturgical poems from this time reference the Jewish community in Rafah, although scholarly debates continue regarding the extent and continuity of this presence.

During the medieval period, the Jewish community in Rafah was part of a broader network of Jewish settlements in the region. Notable medieval rabbis, such as Rabbi Tsedakah Halevi, contributed to the community’s spiritual and intellectual life. Historical records from the Cairo Geniza, a trove of Jewish manuscript fragments, provide evidence of correspondence and legal disputes involving the Jewish community in Rafah. Under Ottoman rule, Rafah’s Jewish community engaged in various economic activities, including agriculture and trade.

Commenting on the wave of anti-Hamas demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, Seth Mandel writes:

Gazans have not have been fully honest in public. There’s a reason for that. To take just one example, Amin Abed was nearly beaten to death with hammers for criticizing Hamas. Abed was saved by bystanders, so presumably the intention was to finish him off. During the cease-fire, Hamas members bragged about executing “collaborators” and filmed themselves shooting civilians.

Which is what makes yesterday’s protests all the more significant. To protest Hamas in public is to take one’s life in one’s hands. That is especially true because the protests were bound to be filmed, in order to get the message out to the world. The reason the world needs to hear that message is that Westerners have been Hamas’s willing propaganda tools. The protests on campus are not “pro-Palestinian,” they are pro-Hamas—and the people of Gaza are Hamas’s victims.