Rafah's Angry Tunnel Men

Pity the tunnel men of Gaza. For years now, they had their own subterranean river of gold at Rafah, on the border between Gaza and Egypt. Anything that you wanted brought into Gaza --guns, explosives, hashish, rare medicines, a bride trapped on the other side--came courtesy of these burrows in the sandy soil. It was a set price of $30 a kilo, no matter if it was merchandise or a man.

Each militant gang had a string of tunnels, and some Rafah families worked free-lance, for cash. Every so often the Israelis would drop a bomb near the fence, cratering a tunnel, but the enterprising mole-men would dust themselves off and dig a new one.

But then Hamas tore down the border wall, and the tunnel-makers found their product to be obsolete. The rivers of gold dried up. All that hard work digging, and now Gazans are passing freely carrying anything they like across the border from Egypt.You can imagine the tunnel men popping their heads out of the ground like angry gophers. This disturbs Hamas –one drug squad member told me that 1 1/2 tons of hashish was carted across on the first day the fence went down—and it certainly rattles the Israelis, too.

The Israelis are justifiably worried that Hamas and other militant gangs are taking advantage of the free border to bring more diabolical and bigger weapons into Gaza along with militants fresh from Hezballah's training camps. Over the last couple of days, Israeli warplanes have targeted a few choice militant commanders with their rockets, out of the blue, just to keep Hamas from getting too uppity.

There's no telling how long the border will stay open. Gazans naturally want it open permanently. The Israelis want it closed, and the Egyptians are being told to slam it shut by Washington, but they don't want to risk Arab outrage by shooting down hungry Palestinians who just wanted to do a bit of shopping.

---by Tim McGirk/Rafah