拉法曾是加沙地带第三大城市，约有20万人口；在以色列国防军对哈马斯的两年战争中，城市及郊区被系统性摧毁，如今只剩瓦砾与扭曲的钢铁。居民被迫迁往海岸肮脏的帐篷难民营，正遭冬季风暴冲击与洪涝。
美国官员将拉法描绘为加沙“光明未来”，并以两项以色列工程作证：摧毁哈马斯复杂的地道网络，以及在原东拉法两处清理数千吨瓦砾以建设“规划社区”。这些预制住房化合区需要数月建成、只能容纳人口的一小部分，而以军工程军官称仍不断发现规模与复杂性“令人惊讶”的地道，且无能力全部摧毁；始于10月、基于特朗普20点计划的停火在第一阶段撤出人口稠密海岸区、进行人质与囚犯交换并恢复部分援助后已陷入停滞。
第二阶段所设想的国际稳定部队、技术官僚政府与哈马斯解除武装均未兑现：技术官僚名单未公布、没有国家公开承诺派兵、哈马斯仅作含糊表态而无实际行动。重建预计耗时多年、成本达数百亿美元，但交火仍在继续——12月13日以军空袭击毙哈马斯高级指挥官拉阿德·赛义德，停火开始以来据报近400名巴勒斯坦人被以军杀害——同时特朗普将于12月29日在佛州马阿拉歌向内塔尼亚胡施压推进其版本的下一阶段。
Rafah was once the Gaza Strip’s third-largest city, home to around 200,000 people; after a two-year war against Hamas, the city and suburbs were systematically destroyed by the Israel Defence Forces and are now rubble. Its population was pushed into squalid coastal tent camps now battered and flooded by winter storms.
American officials cast Rafah as a bright future for Gaza, citing two Israeli projects: destroying Hamas’s tunnel network and clearing thousands of tonnes of rubble in two parts of what was eastern Rafah for “planned communities.” These prefabricated compounds take months to build and would house only a fraction of the population, while IDF engineers say the tunnels’ scale and complexity still surprise them and they lack capacity to destroy them all; the ceasefire that began in October under Donald Trump’s 20-point plan has stalled after phase one withdrawals from populated coastal areas, hostage–prisoner swaps, and some resumed aid.
Phase two—an International Stabilisation Force, a technocratic civilian government, and Hamas’s disarmament—has not materialised: technocrat names are unreleased, no country has publicly pledged troops, and Hamas has taken no concrete steps. Reconstruction is expected to take years and cost tens of billions of dollars, yet violence persists—an Israeli strike on December 13 killed senior Hamas commander Raad Saed and nearly 400 Palestinians are reported killed by the IDF since the ceasefire began—while Trump summons Binyamin Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago on December 29 to press his next-stage terms.
Source: Donald Trump’s peace plan is faltering in the chaos of Gaza
Subtitle: But American officials insist the strip has a bright future
Dateline: 12月 18, 2025 07:37 上午 | JERUSALEM AND RAFAH