In response to communication from CAMERA, Reuters has partially corrected errors about the southern Gaza Strip Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. The Feb. 6 article by Ramadan Abed and Nidal Al-Mughrabi (“For Palestinians returning to Gaza, a bittersweet reunion“), had wrongly stated: “Rafah, which Israeli forces have destroyed and depopulated after retaining control of the town …” [Emphasis added. A screenshot of the original text is at left.]
The assertion that Israeli forces destroyed and “depopulated” (sic: evacuated) the Rafah area after the October 2025 ceasefire deal is incorrect. Residents fled or evacuated the area during the course of two years of fighting. Similarly, the town’s buildings were destroyed during the course of fighting, and not by Israeli troops after the ceasefire went into effect.
A separate Feb. 5 Reuters item get the chronology right, reporting that the town was destroyed and its population evacuated during fighting: “Rafah was demolished and depopulated by Israeli forces during two-year war with Hamas.” [Emphasis added.]
While the Feb. 5 report was accurate on the chronology, its use of the loaded term “depopulated,” which wrongly implies ethnic cleansing is nevertheless highly problematic. Rafah’s population was evacuated for its security, in accordance with International Humanitarian Law.
Regarding the evacuations pre-October 2025, Al-Mughrabi himself and Mahmoud Issa previously reported (“Hundreds of thousands flee as Israel seizes Rafah in new Gaza ‘security zone,” April 2, 2025):
Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced “security zone” they intend to seize. . . .
Rafah “is gone, it is being wiped out,” a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighbouring Khan Younis, told Reuters via a chat app.
“They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property,” said the man who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.
The assault to capture Rafah is a major escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.
On April 28, 2025, Reuters reported residents claimed that “Israel’s army is flattening the remaining ruins of the city of Rafah.”
Regarding the evacuations, Reuters reported on May 6, 2024: “Israeli military calls on Palestinian civilians to evacuate.” Clearly, if the town was evacuated and leveled prior to the ceasefire, during the course of war, and materials for a mass construction project had not made their way into the territory in the interim, then there the town could not have been destroyed and evacuated after the ceasefire.
In a second erroneous claim, the article wrongly reported, in both English and Arabic: “The Rafah crossing is the only exit and entry point for nearly all of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents.” In fact, the Kerem Shalom crossing also serves as an exit point for Gaza residents leaving the territory for medical treatment. World Health Organization data indicates that of the 10,762 patients and 12,398 companions who exited Gaza since the war started until Jan. 26, 2026, 14 percent and at least 24 percent respectively used Kerem Shalom crossing.
During the past week:
✔️Close to 2,000 trucks were collected and distributed from the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim Crossings.
✔️Over 1,200 humanitarian aid trucks primarily containing food, entered through the crossings.
✔️Hundreds of patients and caregivers… pic.twitter.com/RZQJBOLSvm
— COGAT (@cogatonline) September 14, 2025
In a joint operation with the UAE and EU, we facilitated the safe passage of 231 patients and caregivers from Gaza to receive medical treatment abroad today.
The 231 patients and caregivers left Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Ramon Airport to receive medical… pic.twitter.com/sNyvXQdOGV
— COGAT (@cogatonline) November 6, 2024
According to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Kerem Shalom continued to serve this purpose including after Rafah reopened for business. OCHA reported Feb. 2: “The limited re-opening of Rafah allowed some patients and their companions to exit directly to Egypt, while others transited through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.”
Of the three problems in the reporting, Reuters corrected only the chronology. On Feb. 8, Reuters amended the text to state that Rafah “was demolished and depopulated by Israeli forces during the war with Hamas.” A correction at the top reads:
(This Feb 6 story has been corrected to show that Israeli forces depopulated and demolished Rafah during the war, not after the ceasefire, in paragraph 9)
See also “New York Times Quneitra Claims Contradicted by Times’ Own Reporting.”