Choked off from the outside world under a tight Israeli blockade; Gaza smugglers boast about the hundreds of tunnels breaking the siege and connecting the impoverished strip to neighboring Egypt. Gazans in desperate need of goods, such as food and medicine, say their city is rife with tunnels and smuggling has now become a lucrative business in the densely populated area. "The ground at Rafah is a real Swiss cheese. If there were an earthquake the whole lot would cave in," the boss of one of the tunnels told AFP.
| Paging the Halliburton Earthquake/Tsunami division to the white courtesy phone ... |
The exact number of tunnels is impossible to verify but the rapid growth of excavation work is plain for all to see.
At 10 in the morning in Rafah, the only sounds come from the nearby border, where the grinding of motors draws attention to smugglers busy digging more passages beneath this sandy frontier. The presence of scores of tunnels is revealed by plastic huts camouflaging their entrances and by the heaps of earth visible along the 14-kilometre (8.5-mile) demarcation line. "It is a growth industry because of the blockade of Gaza and the closure of frontiers," said Abu Khaled, in charge of one of the sites, where tunnelling began 10 days ago.
Around his tent alone, three more tunnels are under construction.
Not very long ago it was difficult to meet smugglers or talk to them, but now they operate openly and with everyone's knowledge and they are not bothered by anyone except, they say, when it comes to paying taxes to the Hamas government, which controls Gaza.