American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Forces armored bulldozer in Rafah while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian house.

Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American nonviolence activist and diarist. She was a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and was active throughout the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. In 2003, she was in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military was demolishing Palestinian houses at the height of the Second Intifada. While protesting the demolitions as they were being carried out, she was killed by an Israeli armored bulldozer that crushed her.

The Israel Defense Forces, alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym Tzahal (צה״ל), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and the Israeli Navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security apparatus. The IDF is headed by the chief of the general staff, who is subordinate to the defense minister.

Rafah is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza City and Khan Yunis, about 70% of Gaza's population, were displaced to Rafah, as of February 2024. By April 2025, most of the city was destroyed by means of systematic razing by the Israeli military. The remnants of the city are currently under Israeli control.

Demolition of Palestinian property is a method Israel has used in the Israeli-occupied territories since they came under its control in the Six-Day War, as well as in Israel proper, to achieve various aims. Broadly speaking, demolitions can be classified as either administrative, punitive/dissuasive and as part of military operations. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions estimated that Israel had razed 55,048 Palestinian structures as of 2022. In the first several months of the ongoing Gaza war, Israel further demolished over 2,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank. Furthermore, Israel has demolished homes within its borders, targeting Bedouin and Palestinian Druze communities. Israel justifies these demolitions by claiming that the houses are built without permits. Arab Israeli communities have argued that getting building permits in Israel is exceedingly difficult for Palestinian citizens.