Photographers Blog

from AxisMundi Jerusalem:

Tunnel smugglers in Gaza

Yannis Behrakis

Sep 2, 2009 08:38 EDT

By: Suhaib Salem When you walk inside the border area between Gaza Strip and Egypt, the first thing you see are hundreds of tunnels, used by smugglers to bring goods into the Gaza Strip. Building any tunnel is a hard task that requires precise care. Tunnel smugglers need to supply the underground passageway with electricity, air and a telecommunications unit.

Working underground is like living on another planet. Going down inside one of these tunnels is a very terrifying venture. Darkness fills the entire tunnel, which runs deep and long. Some small lamps are hung to light the way, cables lie on the ground and intercoms connect one side of the border to the other. These intercoms are used by the smugglers to enable the one who based on the Egyptian side to contact his colleague on the Palestinian side. After walking a few steps inside the tunnel, you hear humming from neighboring smugglers digging their own tunnels. Sometimes one tunnel breaches the wall of its neighbor, putting both in danger of collapse. Different types of tunnels are used for certain tasks. The food smuggling tunnel differs from the tunnel used for smuggling cattle or animals.

Each tunnel is custom built for its own purpose. Tunnels for cattle and animals are longer and deeper to ease the movement of calf or sheep inside the passageway. When Hamas seized power from the rival Fatah movement in 2007, Israel tightened its blockade of the Gaza strip. Today Gazans consider the tunnels a main crossing, and most of their needs -- cement, medicine, food, refrigerators and raw materials -- are supplied through them. Many shops in the Gaza Strip offer smuggled goods and people come from throughout the territory to shop in the markets of Rafah, on the Egyptian border. The frontier area is frequently bombed by Israel, which says it is trying to stop weapons smuggling into the costal enclave. Egyptian border forces also bomb some tunnels from time to time. Tunnels owners repair their tunnels as fast as possible. Despite the danger, Mohammed Joma, 35, decided to work underground to feed his family. Joma, who was working inside Israel as a labourer before a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000, said: "I face risks every day but the bad circumstances force me to (work in the tunnels). Every day, my wife and my children bid me farewell before going to my work because they think that I may not return to my house. No one likes this work, but I need to build my family's future." Joma receives 100 Israeli shekels a day for his labours. Tunnel owners and many businessmen in Gaza are getting rich off the smuggling trade.

Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana killed in Gaza

For those who may have missed it, this is the Reuters story reporting the killing of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. It is a tragic loss and I would like to add my condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

Reuters cameraman killed in Gaza 

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – A Reuters cameraman was killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in what appeared to be an Israeli military strike.

Fadel Shana, 23, was covering events in the enclave for the international news agency on a day of intense violence when 16 other Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Two youths passing by died in the same explosion that killed Shana, witnesses said. The cameraman had stepped from his car to film an Israeli tank dug in several hundred meters (yards) away.