FROM A distance, you’d think it was a horticultural project. Banks of red earth criss-cross the Palestinian side of the no-man’s land between Gaza and Egypt. Every 20 or 30 metres, young Palestinian men work under what appear to be greenhouse canopies.
The tunnels of Rafah – more than one thousand of them – are a major stake in the war between Hamas and Israel. Israel wants the tunnels shut; the Palestinians say they would starve without them, because of Israel’s 19-month siege of the Gaza Strip. Despite three weeks of heavy bombing, the majority of the tunnels are open.
The area has as many holes as a Swiss cheese. “Sometimes the tunnels intersect,” says a worker. “We try to avoid it. We go under or over other tunnels. It’s like directing train traffic. It’s fun underground.”
Hamdan (22) owns a tunnel which partly collapsed when an Israeli missile dug a huge crater 10 metres from its entrance. He says it will take a month, and $20,000, to reopen the passage. “We bring only foodstuffs from Egypt – cheese, meat, chips, candy, milk and cigarettes,” he says, chainsmoking Camels.
Hamdan bribes Egyptian officers to turn a blind eye. Food is towed through on a plastic sleigh. Livestock are herded through larger tunnels.
“Of course, the animals get frightened,” explains a worker. “It takes two men to bring a calf or foal through – one to push and one to pull.” And the weapons? “No, no, no,” Hamdan says emphatically.
“The weapons come through Hamas tunnels only, and those are secret.”
A tripod made of welded steel pipes perches over the shaft of Hamdan’s tunnel. “I wouldn’t go down there for anything in the world,” my interpreter Ahmad says as I slide on to a wooden slat suspended from a pulley.
“I don’t want to die underground,” Ahmad adds reassuringly. An engine put-puts away, powering the contraption which lowers me down the narrow, 30ft deep shaft. I have to kick the walls to keep from crashing into them.
Some 40 Palestinians died in the Rafah tunnels last year – 20 were asphyxiated when the Egyptians used lethal gas to flush out smugglers. The others perished when the sandy walls caved in.
But the money is exceptionally good by Gaza standards. Hamdam pays his men $100 per day, because of the danger.
“When you go down, you’re never sure if you’ll come back up,” he explains. Tunnel owners will not hire married men, for fear of greedy widows.
The smugglers work in jeans, T-shirts and bare feet. “We shore up the collapsed parts with wood,” Hamdan explains. “If the Israelis bomb again, we’ll use metal next time, and concrete the time after that. As long as there’s a siege, the tunnels will keep working.”