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Last updated January 23, 2009 In Arab mythology the Afarit (singular - Ifrit) are a class of djinn - evil, fiery spirits - who live underground. Afarit is an excellent description for smugglers bringing weapons through Gaza's tunnel system to be used by Hamas terorists. The weapons bring death to Israelis and, ultimately, as no state can forever sit by while rockets rain down on its citizens, to Palestinians. You would not believe what passes through Gaza's smuggling tunnels. Everything from ammunition to Viagra, to livestock to AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and rockets passes through the tunnels. The price of diesel dropped after a pilelin was threaded through one tunnel. Additional smuggled items are foreign currency, weapons, clothes, cigarettes, narcotics, alcohol, auto parts, electronic items, and prostitutes. Smuggling is a Booming Business (Pun Intended) There may have been a worldwide economic meltdown in 2008, but in Gaza you could get rich. Stock markets were crashing, yet in Gaza 500 supermarkets flourished - underground mega-stores. Each tunnel had a manager, smugglers, merchants, intermediaries, a driver, and customers with shopping lists. Ask for for just about anything, you could pick it up two days later. The excavation of smuggling tunnels in the Rafah area began in 1982, subsequent to the division of the city between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Gazans at night and pull out the merchandize during the day. Hamas charges a $200-dollar fee per bag. They smuggle very few weapons (no need, they have too much as it is.) Drugs and alcohol are also rarely smuggled, for fear of Hamas’ watchful eye. They do smuggle plenty of computers and cellular phones, jeans, sneakers, cement, furniture, medicine, food, and mostly chocolate. 
Underground Traffic
One Egyptian bride who grew sick and tired of waiting at the Rafah border crossing passed through one of the tunnels. The “boss” was generous and only demanded $150 for the “goods.” Meanwhile, Hamas forfeited the tunnel tax that was supposed to be paid by the groom’s family and rushed to inform the media about it.  Cash cow: A confused-looking bovine is lowered into an underground chamber in Rafah on November 15. Calves at one tunnel cost $600 each: $350 for the animal and $250 for the passage. Such smuggling is lucrative for smugglers and Hamas, which in began collecting a $2,500 yearly license fee from tunnel owners. Prada and GucciWelcome to the ungrounded Palestinian mall system. It was not uncommon to see a smuggler carrying a pile of laptops. In Egyptian Rafah you could find a bag containing jeans and canned goods lowered into the backyard. A new eyeglasses boutique opened for business. Prada and Gucci frames arrived all the way from Dubai, and prices were sky-high. 
Tunnel vision: (Above) A woman checks out televisions smuggled from Egypt on sale in Rafa. Gasoline, cigarettes, lingerie, and laptop computers are smuggled through. Even most residents of Gaza’s zoo arrived via the subterranean passages known as hayyeh, including two lion cubs, a parrot who can ask for a kiss in Arabic, and three gazelles, one of which bit smugglers who forgot to drug it before the journey. It’s just a matter of time before an elephant can lumber in, the zoo’s manager joked to the Associated Press. How The Tunnel System Works Click here for more information on the Rafah tunnel system The youngest in the group is usually called Ahmed or Muhammad, and he must be short, skinny, and quick. Two people stand above him: One of them is the driver that will be transporting the bags, and the other is the “boss” - just like in the mafia. On a good day, the “boss” makes about a thousand dollars. On a bad day, Ahmad or Muhammad could end up dead, should one of Gaza’s tunnels collapse. Forty seven Palestinians, half of them children, died in 2008 while working underground. On a good day, Ahmed or Muhammad will finish their shift with 50 shekels (roughly $15) - enough to feed an extended family. At least 20 people depend on the dangerous labor of a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old who every morning embark on their studies in the school of life. He's near the bottom of the smuggling food chain, and explains how it works. A shaft is dropped at least 10 feet below ground, since the wall extends that far, and tunneling begins, with a mechanized winch and bucket system to clear the soil. After two months of intermittent digging toward a spot selected by Bedouin contacts on the Egyptian side, found using hand-held GPS units, they run up a small probe. Once the Egyptian smugglers find it, they move goods into place, open the hole, crank the merchandise to Gaza using winches, and then close it again until the following night. "If we're lucky, we can keep a tunnel like that going for a few months before it's shut down." Still, Hamas clearly sees the tunnels as a strategic asset. Two cousins who dig and operate tunnels say they had to abandon one recently because Hamas complained it was running too close to one of its own. They also say Hamas has begun to collect high taxes on cigarettes – a box of 500 cigarette packs that can be bought in Egypt for $700 sells for $2,000 in Gaza – in order to take control of that trade themselves. Gaza’s tunnels have become much more sophisticated in recent years. Electric tools have replaced digging by hand. Telephone and electricity cables pass through the tunnels, many of which have air pumped in and winches to carry people and goods across. Vacuum cleaners remove loose soil.$1 a bullet Smugglers demand $300 (about £150) per rifle, which can be sold for up to $2,000 in Gaza. For every bullet, they get $1, a quarter of the Gaza market price. People can also use the tunnels to escape vendettas or police attention for $6,000.Tunnelling is dangerous business. In one case a tunnel collapsed after the Egyptians pumped in water. The digger was dragged out by his feet 24 hours later by a member of one of the extended tribal families that dominate the tunnel business. The tunnelling culture is so well established in Rafah that the high street barber - the Shaheeds' (Martyrs') Salon - has pictures of dead tunnellers on its walls and mirrors, alongside their shovels and other memorabilia. Smugglers keep their operations private for fear of Egyptian or Israeli surveillance. If neighbours become aware, their silence is bought. Sometimes neighbours are concerned about the threat of an Israeli air strike and their protests can destroy a project's viability. Ahmed said that since the Israelis withdrew their forces on the ground in Gaza, the Egyptian police had become more aggressive towards tunnellers. When the Egyptians discover a tunnel, he said, they pipe in poison gas, seal the tunnel, and tell the Palestinian Authority police to do the same. He knew of several people who had been killed in this way. The tunnel being dug by Ahmed and his friends is 170 metres long but needs clearing again before it is ready for business. The sandy soil is easy to dig and remove, but each time a tunneller touches the side more sand falls in. The average smuggling tunnel is approximately 500 meters in length, and dozens of meters deep. Some are reputed to have air conditioning and mechanical trolleys as well as wood-paneling, electrical infrastructure, communications gear, and rudimentary elevators. Ahmed's is simpler. The shaft has been strengthened with bricks and sandbags but there is nothing to support its horizontal section. In a few weeks when the tunnel is ready, Ahmed will offer it for use to weapons dealers on both sides of the border.Regulation Hamas formulated rules for this game. Boys below 18 years of age must not be used for digging tunnels. Those who are caught violating this regulation will be fined. Moreover, smugglers' shifts must be no longer than 10 hours. A Minimum wage was introduced. Should a tunnel collapse, the tunnel manager must compensate the victim’s family. The exact sum is is decided through bargaining between attorneys and tunnel managers. The new ethical code is in Jordanian dinars, but trade underground is conducted in Israeli shekels. Israeli bills are even accepted in Egyptian Rafah. To be honest, everyone is satisfied. The Hamas leadership knows what to do with its cut of the “tunnel tax.” Merchants on the Egyptian side, smugglers on the Palestinian side; everyone associated with this industry are making the kind of living they could not imagine in their wildest dreams. Often the big winners in smuggling is the tunnel owner or “snake head” who may have put up $50,000 to buy a house on the border wherer a tunnel entrance, or "eye," is located; maybe in a closet. The “snake head” typically needs only one successful crossing to turn his initial investment into profit. He is usually quick to snap up the four-wheel-drive vehicles, the phalanx of gun-toting bodyguards, the new villa and other trappings of the successful entrepreneur. Abu Mohammed, one of Gaza's smuggling kingpins whose family has been in the business since the early 1980s, will tell you the tunnels that have enriched him and his extended family – they live in a five-house compound with orchards and fields – act as an economic and social safety valve that serve Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's interests as much as his own.A Question All this goes to show that Palestinians are no dummies. In fact, they have the reputation of being the smartest, best educated of all Arabs. Why then do the keep following their leaders over a cliff time after time, after time, after time? What have Arfat and Hamas ever brought them but death and destruction? Al-Ghoul Dot Coms advice to the Gazans: Make peace with Israel and you could be conducting business above ground. Alas, no. Hamas insists on using the tunnels for smuggling weapons for its terrorist activities. Combat Tunnels As the IDF conducted counter-terrorist activities in Gaza, the tunnels were the main route for Hamas to bring in weapons. The tunnel system is strikingly similar to the Viet Cong's infamous Cu Chi tunnels during the Vietnam War. The Viet Cong moved weapons and supplies through their tunnels, and, like Hamas, they hid many of their leaders in them as well. The Viet Cong, technologically inferior to the United States, was able to bridge the firepower gap against a world superpower through sheer cunning and ingenuity. The Cu Chi tunnels were a vast network of underground sleeping quarters, weapon storage facilities, war rooms and fighting positions. Guerrillas dug out makeshift medical facilities beneath the earth, and doctors tended to wounded soldiers in them, often using electricity generated by a bicycle. The Viet Cong planned and executed attacks from beneath the surface, and the U.S. military launched two tunnel-specific offensives to eradicate them. But both Operation Crimp and Operation Cedar Falls met with mixed results, and the goal of sealing off the tunnels proved elusive at best. Australians and Americans used gas, water and explosives to exterminate the threat from below, but even aerial carpet-bombing proved ineffective for underground paths that ran as deep as 60 feet. Like the boots on the ground necessary to physically root out an opposing force, the tunnels required painstaking personal attention. The Australians used infantrymen they named "tunnel rats" to descend into the mazes and engage the enemy. They performed admirably, despite exploding booby-trapped hatches and steep drops where soiled and sharpened bamboo sticks could skewer a soldier. But the clandestine subterranean insurgency persisted. Now, nearly 40 years later, Israeli forces face a similar threat, with obstacles that have not changed. Hamas excavated tunnels for terrorist attacks against IDF posts and population centers in close proximity to the Gaza Strip border fence. The tunnels allow terrorists to infiltrate into Israeli territory and then return to the Strip. Indeed, on June 25, 2006, Palestinian terrorists utilized an "infiltration" tunnel to carry out an attack against an IDF post near the Sufa Crossing. Two IDF soldiers were killed and Cpl. Gilad Shalit was abducted. There are also tunnels designated as safe passages for terrorist operatives in battle zones. Such tunnels are typically located between buildings. Hamas has also populated "ambush" tunnels with camouflaged IEDs and utilized underground (concrete) firing positions. Hidden rocket launch sites (activated via a delay system) are concealed in vegetation or between houses. In August 2007, the IDF identified a tunnel shaft inside a greenhouse growing tomatoes 700 meters from the northern Gaza Strip border fence. An underground generator was also discovered, as was equipment used to dig tunnels. Below the shaft, the horizontal section is much smaller, around 60cm by 70cm (about 2ft by 2ft 4ins) - the optimum size to give space and stability. Air is pumped into the tunnel with vacuum cleaners and via ventilation shafts. The latter also show partners on the Egyptian side where the tunnel is heading so that its path can be corrected."Hamas' tunnels systems as a tactic within the urban guerrilla-style warfare, were known to the [Israeli forces] for more than two years in which the appropriate operational tactics were developed and adopted," said retired Col. Yoni Fighel, a senior researcher at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. Col. Fighel cautioned that the " 'smuggling' tunnels from Egypt not be confused with 'combat' tunnels," insisting that one system is for tactical use, while the other is for mixed commercial use. But Nir T. Boms from the Center for Freedom in the Middle East — a Washington think tank formed by Americans of Middle East descent — found it difficult to separate commercial smuggling from Hamas' covert activities. "It depends on the who owns the tunnels and for what purpose," he said. A major distinction between the tunnels under Gaza and the Viet Cong underground network is that some of the Gaza tunnels conduct commercial activity between Gaza and Egypt. There is an economy of the tunnels, with each tunnel having a type of owner charging a 'toll' for passage. The cost of digging a tunnel is roughly $3,000. There's no consensus on precisely how many tunnels and underground caches existed before the IDF began counter-terrorism operations. Some experts say there are approximately 800 clandestine passages; others say there are well over 1,000. Bukers and weapons stores are built under houses. During the operation in Gaza tunnels were used by mortar squads that spearheaded Hamas attacks on Israeli forces. The squads – led by fighters trained in Lebanon and Iran – are based inside intricate tunnel networks that can be accessed from mosques, Hamas commanders homes and public buildings. In close combat fighting, Hamas operatives use the tunnel layout to lure Israel soldiers into ambushes where they could be captured or killed. Hamas fighters used the tunnels to plant explosives and set trip wires in buildings alongside IDF positions. Munitions and explosives were strategically placed throughout the tunnels. The IDF destroyed a large number of tunnels in air raids that triggered secondary explosions of arms caches. Above ground tunnel entrances were covered by rugs, radiators and even toy boxes in homes. Hamas' strategy for firing rockets from Gaza involved constructing launch pads in underground silos which are virtually impossible detect from the air. The majority of rockets are now triggered remotely using mobile phone or command wires. There's no longer any need to crouch by the rocket with a box of matches.Hamas Siezes Philadelphi Corridor Tunnels After the end of Operation Cast Lead Hamas seized control of all smuggling tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza and has been moving additional arms into the Strip. The IDF destroyed 80 percent of the 300 tunnels that Hamas is believed to have dug under the 14-kilometer stretch of land separating Gaza and Egypt. Some of the tunnels were not destroyed out of humanitarian considerations. Tunnels used to transfer fuel from Sinai to Gaza were spared from concern that if bombed a huge explosion would result - possibly also on the Egyptian side - with many civilian casualties.Sources: Hamas Tunnel System Rivals Viet Cong's Cu Chi Underground; http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,479444,00.html The Gaza Tunnel industry; http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2008/10/gaza-tunnel-industry.html Photo Essay: Gaza’s (Literal) Underground Economy;http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4558&page=0 Gaza’s shopping heaven: While world faces crisis, booming tunnel industry making Gaza merchants rich; http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3607935,00.html http://www.weaponsurvey.com/tunnels.htm In the tunnels of Gaza, smugglers risk death for weapons and profit; http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article4228420.ece Hamas takes control of all Gaza tunnels; http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1232643727069 
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