Rebuilding the tunnels

As the Armed Forces continue to destroy tunnels on Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are hard at work repairing their smuggling routes. In the Egyptian border town of Rafah, houses — often used to disguise the entrance to a tunnel — have been demolished and the tunnels flooded. "We are working to fix the tunnel quietly away from the Egyptian eyes — six workers in the morning, and another six continue to work at night under the border with Egypt,” says tunnel owner Ashraf, 29. “They are removing the sand and mud which fell down in the tunnel in plastic containers, which are pulled out by an electronic machine. The work situation is very dangerous because at any moment the tunnel could collapse and fall on the workers.” The Egyptian army's fear that the tunnels are used to smuggle weapons into the Sinai peninsula spurred the recent security operation, which has impacted Gaza’s ongoing economic crisis. A lack of fuel, gas, building materials, medicine and other basic goods previously smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the tunnels has hindered construction, transportation and electricity, and unemployment has risen.