Mustafa used to fear little but a periodic Israeli army raid as he dug arms smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian revolt. Now he has to worry about the neighbours too. Running guns and contraband through tunnels into Rafah refugee camp from nearby Egypt was once both profitable and patriotic in Palestinian eyes. It put rare cash into a poor economy and fuelled "resistance" to Israeli occupation in Gaza. But communal support for the smugglers has cooled as Israeli forces have razed more and more parts of Rafah said to be hiding tunnels. With 13,000 people now homeless, many of whom say they concealed nothing, residents are turning on the tunnel men. "Many people now oppose our work. I know of cases where people have noticed others digging a tunnel and they have assaulted them," said Mustafa, a veteran Rafah tunnel builder who declined to give his family name.
| You mean the Israeli policy worked? |
| No, no! That can't be it! There has to be some other factor... |
Residents have staged no public protests against the tunnel networks for fear of seeming disloyal to the uprising in Rafah, which is dominated by militant factions. But the tunnel issue has become the talk of the town, with many residents privately urging tunnel builders to cease, and threatening them and their families if they do not. Some tunnels have been blocked off by irate residents concerned their adjacent homes might be bulldozed or blown up during the next Israeli army sweep. Many in the sprawling cinder-block camp of 80,000 people fret that the spread of tunnels has given raiding Israelis leeway to flatten any housing in their way. U.N. refugee agency figures put the number of demolished houses at 1,300 since the uprising began in 2000. The Israeli army says it has found and destroyed 90 tunnels in that time. "Tunnels are harmful," said Mariam Abu Shaqfa, 50, whose house was severely damaged in last month's incursion even though, she insisted, there were no tunnels in her district. Tunnels are mostly dug by night, but by day too if inside a house. Builders once equipped only with short-handled hoes now have access to earth-moving machines. The tunnel men say only light arms can be slipped through shafts measuring some 60 cm (two feet) across and 80 cm (two and a half feet) high -- too small for heavy weaponry like Katyusha rockets which Israel says the militants are trying to import. The tunnels cost an average of $20,000 (11,000 pounds) and several months of secret, backbreaking, often dangerous work to complete -- two builders were killed recently when one caved in on them.
| Another claim for Mutual of Gaza. |
Tunnellers sometimes stay up to 12 hours underground thanks to equipment ensuring a supply of clean air. "We may eat and drink tea and even smoke cigarettes," said Mustafa. "We bring in the stuff -- Kalashnikov (assault rifles), bullets, explosives -- and then we approach factions who want to buy. It was never an easy job. You go underground and you do not know whether a tunnel could collapse on your head. We're also marked for death by Israel."
| So the money must be good... |
The hardest part of their job now, the tunnel men say, is to dispose of dirt from their digs without alerting the neighbours. Growing community opposition, together with increasing Israeli incursions that have progressively reduced entire neighbourhoods to rubble, have slowed down tunnel construction and with it the arrival of fresh arms and ammunition. Prices are soaring as a result. The cost of a Kalashnikov bullet has doubled recently to 30 shekels (3.50 pounds). Tunnel builders said they were hearing that Egypt was rounding up cohorts on the other side of the border and meting out long prison terms. Israel has long called for such a crackdown by Egypt, pointing to their 1979 peace treaty. The tunnels, some of which date to the 1980s era of regional calm, have also brought an influx of canned food and cigarettes from Egypt that fill Rafah's street markets, earning handsome livings for local smugglers. "If tunnels were only to support the resistance with arms, we would sacrifice all our houses but that hasn't been the case," said Nasr al-Abed, a camp neighbourhood committeeman. |