RAFAH: In the dunes of rubble along the Gaza border work crews are excavating scores of bombed tunnels, but smugglers say Egyptian forces on the other side are gradually choking off their trade.
“The Egyptians have deployed everywhere on the other side and they have set up cameras. We haven’t been able to bring anything in since Thursday, said Abu Mohammed, a Gaza tunnel owner who declined to give his real name.
The bombed border area a few meters from his house resembles a vast mining camp, with scores of crews repairing the tunnels – many using earthmovers. No one expects the new security measures to last for long.
The thriving tunnel trade survived Israel’s three-week onslaught last month and most diggers expect the tunnels will remain as long as Israel and Egypt refuse to open the border crossings of the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Abu Mohammed’s tunnel was still intact after the war, and he said that until Thursday he was bringing in 15 tons of goods each day, a shipment worth around $12,000.
“They forced the tunnels on us with the siege. How else are we supposed to feed our families? How else are we supposed to get fuel and cement? he said.
Israel and Egypt have sealed the Gaza Strip off from all but vital humanitarian aid since Hamas seized power in June 2007.
Since then the tunnels beneath the 14-kilometer border – which were mostly used for smuggling weapons before Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza in 2005 – have become a mainstay of the local economy.
Israel accuses Hamas of using the tunnels to bring in advanced weapons supplied by Iran, but smugglers say with the exception of a few secret Hamas-run tunnels the passages are used only for food and basic goods.
Israeli warplanes pounded the Gaza side of the Rafah border during the offensive and the military said it destroyed 60 to 70 percent of the tunnels.
Israeli forces have struck the tunnels on several occasions since the war ended on January 18 – but to little effect, according to smugglers.
Abu Mahmoud, another tunnel owner, said the diggers receive tip-offs from people in Egypt before each strike. “Everyone knows when it is going to happen. We all leave the area, he said.
Of greater concern to the smugglers are developments on the other side of the border, where Egyptian forces have redoubled efforts to combat the tunnels.
As Egypt has tried in recent weeks to mediate a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas its security forces have fanned out along the border and installed alarms and surveillance cameras.
In the last week Egyptian forces have blown up 15 tunnels and placed large rocks over several others, an Egyptian security official in Rafah told AFP.
Egypt is building a high-tech security system with US assistance aimed at halting arms smuggling – a key Israeli demand in the current truce talks.
The United States has pledged $32 million in detection equipment to unearth smuggling tunnels, and US army engineers have been providing technical assistance on the ground.
Abu Mohammed suspects the heightened Egyptian efforts are aimed at pressuring Hamas into accepting a truce. If Hamas agrees to the truce the Egyptians will turn a blind eye. If not there could be problems, he said.
In the meantime, hundreds of diggers are working to rebuild the network.
The Egyptians are using everything they have, said Abu Anna as he watches a group of boys hoisting buckets of dirt out of one of the shafts.
But I don t think they are serious. They cannot close all the tunnels, he said. We were operating tunnels when the Jews were right here, where we are standing. Only the (Hamas-run) government could stop the tunnels.
Hamas police patrol the tunnels, forbidding the import of drugs and weapons and collecting an annual tax of $2,500 per tunnel, according to tunnel owners.
The tunnels remain lucrative, however, providing jobs, money, and goods to thousands of people on both sides of the border town of Rafah.
In the Al-Nijma market in the centre of Rafah vendors hawk stoves, microwaves, generators, and washing machines, many still coated in dirt from the underground passage.
The prices have crept up since the end of the war, Abu Dawud says from behind a table lined with boxes of Egyptian-made cookies and crisps.
There have been less goods in the last two or three days. The prices are going to go up because the tunnel owners are afraid. They know their tunnels could be closed at any time.
Abu Haithem, another vendor, said washing machines fetching $120 before the war are now going for $140. But he says he is not concerned about the future of the underground pipeline.
We will always figure out a way. If the Egyptians set up cameras we will just dig the tunnels another kilometer past them. -AFP
