They are a lifeline of the underground economy but also a death trap. For many Palestinians, they have come to symbolize ingenuity and the dream of mobility.
A worker emerges from one of hundreds of smuggling tunnels that connect the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
This Gazan university student works in a tunnel, hauling goods to earn money for tuition. Many workers put in 12-hour shifts six days a week - or more - in the cramped spaces. Gas explosions, electrocutions, and Israeli air strikes are common.
Members of the militant group Islamic Jihad patrol the border with Israel to prevent incursions by the Israel Defense Forces. The average Gazan family has six people, and with so few jobs to be had, disaffected young men are drawn to extremist groups.
A new tunnel owner, in white cap, watches his son descend into the well shaft to continue digging. Wealthy owners can afford mechanized winches, but this man, who saved for years to get a share of the tunnel trade, must rely on his family and a horse.
Lamb is a luxury most Gazans can afford only on important Muslim holidays. With many farms devastated by war, and with other land lying unproductive in areas restricted by Israel, livestock comes in by tunnel from Egypt.
Merchants and restaurateurs congregate at a tunnel that specializes in smuggling in fresh fish from Egypt, packed on ice in Styrofoam boxes. Israel’s naval blockade keeps Gazan fishermen close to shore, so seafood is always in demand.
Gaza City apartments rise beyond the broken gates of a waterfront restaurant. The beach once bustled with fishing boats and cafés, but the Israeli naval blockade, sewage, and lack of resources for rebuilding have taken their toll.
At Rafah’s hectic Saturday market, vendors sell everything from flavoured water and vegetables to cotton candy. Many goods come through the tunnels from Egypt, but the plump strawberries on display in front of a Hamas billboard are home-grown.
Gazans fix a donkey cart for collecting mountains of rubble left in 2008-09 by Operation Cast Lead, a military campaign in Gaza launched by Israel, officially in response to on-going rocket fire from the strip. Rubble is recycled into gravel for new construction.
The placard notes that Allah will reward those who are patient. The young men are Salafi jihadists with one or more of the radical Islamic splinter groups that call for armed struggle against non-Muslims. They gathered in support of the uprising in Syria.
Suraqa Qudaih, 18, was killed by a missile from an Israeli drone while returning home with two cousins, one of whom was also killed. He was a member of the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant organization.
Twelve-year-old Khamis Abu Arab (at left) was playing outside when he found an undetonated shell. He brought it home, where it exploded in his face. A series of operations in an Israeli hospital removed shrapnel from his eyes but couldn’t restore his sight.
At a Bedouin wedding in Al Maslakh, a village south of Gaza City, 12-year-old flower girl Hassna Abu Wakid enters the procession to the groom’s house. Weddings are still festive public occasions that can last three days.
Israel’s naval blockade to stop smuggling of arms and other goods into the strip also restricts Gazans to within three nautical miles of shore. But the sea is one place where Gazans have an open horizon.
[Source: National Geographic Magazine. Edited.]
Related Post: Inside the Secret Smugglers' Tunnels of the Gaza Strip
Related Post: Inside the Secret Smugglers' Tunnels of the Gaza Strip
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