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RAFAH,Gaza Strip-Gazans are finding an antidote to their growing isolation: digging tunnels under their border with Egypt to smuggle everything from weapons to cigarettes to people.A group of smugglers recently gave an Associated Press photographer rare permission to accompany them as they dug one tunnel. In underground darkness with stifling heat and limited air supply, the diggers painstakingly removed sand and rubble as they crawled through cramped spaces carrying portable lamps and homemade tools.The southern Gaza town of Rafah has long been a key conduit for underground weapons-smuggling—mostly controlled by a handful of local clans. With Israel imposing a strict closure of Gaza's borders in the wake of Hamas militants' violent seizure of the coastal territory in June, more and more smugglers are taking a piece of the action.The stakes are higher than ever. Smugglers find themselves pursued by Israel, which fears militants' growing arsenal; by Egypt, which is under growing pressure to crack down on tunnel diggers; and by Hamas, which does not oppose tunnels but wants to control them.The diggers, who refused to give their names and wore masks to shield their identities, said today's tunnels must be deeper and longer than ever before to avoid detection. The tunnels often take weeks or months to dig, and the tunnelers sleep where they work to avoid getting caught.Tunnelers smuggle machine guns, rifles, ammunition, explosive devices, grenade launchers and other munitions. Cigarettes, drugs, gold, automobile parts and people also move through the shafts.The AP was not allowed to see what goods were moving through the tunnel.Some are only wide enough to carry in contraband no larger than a rifle, pulled through with a rope. Others, such as the one seen by AP, are big enough for a person. Still, once inside there's not enough room to turn around, so every 100 yards or so, a wider space is bored to enable a change of direction.Israel estimates there are dozens of tunnels. They range in length from 100 yards to a half-mile. They begin and end in unlikely places: under the floor tiles of kitchens, inside bedroom closets or animal pens, in the nooks of abandoned buildings. People who allow their dwellings to be used for tunnels are paid...To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah...
