Mapping Life in Rafah

As part of MapLab’s ongoing collaboration with Bloomberg Graphics, this week graphics team leader Alex Newman writes about the recent story she edited on how airstrikes and refugees have reshaped Rafah. As always, we welcome your feedback.

There are a lot of numbers that can be used to describe Rafah. The city in southern Gaza is Israel’s last remaining major target in its military campaign against Hamas, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and European Union. Before the Israel-Hamas war erupted in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, Rafah was home to roughly 280,000 people; now it’s where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.