The Rafah crossing has become a main lifeline connecting Gaza residents with Egypt and the outside world. Gaza's dependence on Rafah increased after Israel destroyed the only airport in Gaza in 2002 during the second intifada and imposed stringent restrictions on the movement of individuals through the Erez crossing, confining its use to humanitarian cases and staff members of international organizations.

Hamas sees in the crossing a key to its legitimacy in the Gaza Strip. After Israel imposed its blockade, this prompted Hamas to exert pressure on the former Egyptian regime to reopen the Rafah crossing and facilitate movement through it, finally succeeding in doing so after the Israeli naval attack on the Turkish humanitarian flotilla in 2010.

Since the forceful takeover by Hamas of the Gaza Strip in 2007, the Rafah crossing was almost completely closed off following the departure of international observers stationed there as part of the so-called crossing agreement reached when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

After the ascension of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt following the January 25 revolution, the Palestinian inhabitants of the besieged Gaza Strip expected to see improvement in the movement of individuals between Gaza and Egypt, but no meaningful changes ever materialized and conditions there were never restored to what they were prior to Hamas’ takeover of the Strip.