still besieged Gaza begins to widen. Just days after the Israeli bombing, the Palestinians are working to rehabilitate their smuggling tunnels. The long axis of Philadelphia, the short border between Gaza and Egypt, the atmosphere resembles that of a mining town during the gold rush. Between the deep craters dug by bombs, teams take turns in the galleries and bulldozers sand tunnel collapsed.
As far as the eye in the direction of the Rafah border or to the blue waters the Mediterranean, a long city of opaque plastic greenhouses is being reborn. Each of these tents is home to a tunnel entrance and a site buzzing with activity. The first gallery to be returned to service are those pipes diesel, which have better withstood the powerful Israeli piercing bombs. Trucks are already back to load the fuel and distributing it to service stations in Gaza.
The other tunnels, hit by Israeli bombs perforating, are still being repaired. "The first will reopen today. And in a week, half of them will be rehabilitated, "said an entrepreneur Palestinian side of its wells.
A real business
Sitting in a cable loop it comes from a half meters from the vertical walls between the planks supported this mine shaft. Once down, a gallery illuminated by light bulbs from winds to the south. It is high enough to be able to walk bent. A small electric winch is used to pull trains plastic crates. One hundred meters away, teams of "cutters" busy, filling sand improvised these cars, until they are again full of goods.
"The tunnel is above all a business, "says the young entrepreneur once it is back to the surface. "It's the only way to circumvent the Israeli blockade. While passing through the tunnels, cigarettes, diapers, coca-cola, computer equipment. The profits are enormous. Everyone is growing. "
The organization is a model of capitalist investment. "You gather a few friends until you meet approximately 50 000 dollars," said the operator with the tone of an entrepreneur. "You rent a plot of land along the border to its owner in exchange for a percentage of the profits, usually between 15 and 20%. You need someone on the Egyptian side of the border to accept to host the end of the tunnel in his house or garden, usually in exchange for 50% of the revenue of the tunnel. Then we start digging in to the guiding compass. "
Long tunnels are approximately 300 to 500 meters, between 10 and 20 meters underground. Knees , a youth worker says his work is extremely dangerous in the loose sand collapses sometimes on men. "We work in teams of eight. There are two teams that take turns to dig 24 to 24 hours. It is paid 100 dollars a meter. We can dig about seven or eight meters per day, "he said.
Hamas is back
The industry flourished under the noses of Egyptian soldiers, to see that fifty yards away in their sentry posts on the other side of the fence. "These tunnels are only business," says Mohammed, a resident of the Rafah camp, which runs along the border, and was hit by bombings in recent weeks. "The weapons of Hamas through its own underground tunnels that go from inside houses in Rafah. Their entries are secret. The "cutters" are required at night and blindfolded on the site. The owner of the house is 100 000 dollars and a percentage of the traffic, but knows nothing else, "he says.
Car Hamas is also back on the border as if nothing had happened. Sitting on plastic chairs, bearded militants stand guard beside a huge unexploded bombs, dug, defused and stacked under tarps.
"Within a month or two, all new tunnels will be operational, "said the Palestinian side of its wells. "There is a demand for such goods, nothing will prevent that they are never . But the same day that the Israelis lift their blockade, they lose any reason to be.
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