Gaza’s Lifeline
It is amazing to think that 1.5 million people have been living under siege since 2006 and yet people are still surviving, having children and not suffering mass famine for the most part. This is where the tunnels fit in.
The tunnels connect Gaza to the rest of the world, via Egypt. There are tens of them in Rafah, a town just north of the border, they are around 600 meters long, and new ones are being built every day. One needs to crawl most of the way, with very little oxygen or light. Men get paid $100 a day to journey to Egypt, collect goods, and bring them back. They are paid so well because 2-3 people die because the tunnels collapse every week. Millions of dollars worth of food, medicine and equipment come through every week. Most of the tunnels come up into white tents, some into people’s basements. A few meters from the area where the tunnels end there is a huge market, this market in turn feeds and clothes all of Gaza. Shopkeepers from the entire strip come there to collect their good and trucks are loaded and driven north. If no mustard is coming through the tunnels, there will be no mustard in all of Gaza.
There are different levels of tunnels; those I went to visit are open to the public, and food, medicine and machinery comes through. There are of course other tunnels which are used to transport weapons, people, and other things (many doctors and journalists used them to enter Gaza during the war). There are also the ‘VIP’ tunnels that are used for important people to travel in and out. However all of these tunnels are controlled by Hamas, which is why through them you cannot get any drugs or alcohol as these things are strictly forbidden by the party.
It is so frustrating to think that men are risking their lives daily journeying back and forth, when if Egypt opened the border things could flow in without anyone risking his life. Unfortunately this is all part of the bigger political picture. The Egyptian government is in an unstable position and constantly fears being overthrown by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood has very tight relations with Hamas, therefore Egypt fears letting Hamas members enter Egypt and stir up unrest. However, Egypt is happy to keep the tunnels operational because this is a huge source of income for the Egyptian economy. Israel also is happy to let the tunnels keep operating, with the exception of the ones that are used to transport weapons, because this means that it has less of an obligation to provide food and medical aid for the Gazan population.
