The “eye” of the tunnel was a small, square hole sunk between shiny kitchen tiles in an abandoned house in the Gaza Strip. To get in was a matter of grabbing hold of a rope emerging from the darkness and jumping into the opening.

Twenty five feet below the ground a narrow passageway, barely 3ft wide, stretched half a mile under the border into Egypt.

Scrabbling through on hands and knees - sand spilling from the roof, caking hair and face with grime - the greatest fear was that, with no struts or roof supports, it would cave in and bury us. Concern that the tunnel might be discovered and poison gas or a sniper sent down to kill Abu Mutassem and his four fellow-diggers hardly made the 45-minute crossing less frightful.

The tunnellers moved slowly through the cool passage after nightfall, hand-held lights penetrating the darkness. The only air came through metal tubes hidden in prickly-pear groves near the border. At last the tunnel opened out in to a chamber dug beneath a building on the Egyptian side.

“Do you have your passport?” one of the smugglers asked. Climbing out of the hole and emerging in an Egyptian border town in the dead of night was out of the question. Jail was the least I could expect if caught.

Canvas bags thumped down into the tunnel and Abu Mutassem and friends hauled them back under the heavily patrolled border into Gaza.

Only after he had climbed back up the rope and emerged from the “eye” did Abu Mutassem check his cargo: 70 short-barrelled Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifles, individually wrapped in plastic to keep out the dirt.

Each weapon would fetch $1,200 (£600) in Gaza. They had cost less than $200 from the desert Beduin community. Abu Mutassem and his men would share about $250 dollars for each gun. The profit margin on bullets was even higher. The big winner from their enterprise would be the tunnel owner or “snake head” who had put up about $50,000 to buy the house on the border.

This week Hamas closed down 35 of these tunnels. It was unclear whether this was because of a dispute with the “snake heads” or as part of the Islamic movement's commitments with Israel under a six-month ceasefire deal. Most, though, remain intact and the “military tunnels”, used to bring rockets, explosives, fighters and funds into Gaza, will not be demolished.

The operators of the “commercial tunnels” plied by Abu Mutassem and his colleagues say that the market for small arms is drying up after a glut of weapons. Like any travelling salesmen, the smugglers vary their cargo to meet demand: sometimes drugs, often cigarettes, perfumes, fugitives (going rate $2,000 a trip) and, very occasionally, even African snakes or wild animals to stock a zoo.

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.

Those left underground are less fortunate. “It's the worst job in the world,” said Abu Mutassem.

Three tunnellers have died in the past two weeks. 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.

The latest tunnels are much more sophisticated than Abu Mutassem's rudimentary route. 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.

Business is booming again after a temporary halt earlier this year when Hamas blasted holes in the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, opening the way for thousands of Palestinians to cross into Egypt on a massive shopping spree. “We diggers knew it was just a breather, and normal service would be resumed,” said Abu Mutassem.

Since Israel cut off much of the trade to Gaza petrol has become one of the most profitable commodities being smuggled in, in plastic jerrycans. Nabil Erbaya and his son Helmi were among those to die last week after they were overcome by fumes from fuel spilt underground.

“We are dipping our bread in blood,” Helmi's uncle said as a queue of people shook hands with the mourners at a wake outside the family home. Another son, Arafat, 17, recovered and has vowed not to go down the tunnels again, but his 14-year-old brother is ready to pick up the family trade.

“I may be digging my own grave,” he said. “But down there it's a goldmine.”

UNDERGROUND TRAFFIC

— Rafah straddles the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. It is divided by an 18ft metal wall that stretches more than 2km (1.2 miles)

— An estimated 40,000 people live on the Egyptian side of Rafah, and 150,000 on the Gaza side

— Tunnels have been used to smuggle goods, weapons and people across the border at Rafah since the early 1990s

— As deep as 20 metres, most have ventilation shafts every 200 metres or so, and engineers can dig an estimated 15 metres a day, using a compass to set the direction

— They are dug from the basements of homes along a 9km stretch of the border

— Having a person smuggled across costs about £1,000, A sack of items about £150

— Since January 2003, the tunnels have been used to smuggle large amounts of various types of weapons into the Gaza Strip, including dozens of RPG rockets and launchers, hundreds of kilograms of explosives, hundreds of rifles (mainly Kalashnikov AK47s) and tens of thousands of bullets, cartridges and other types of ammunition

Source: Times archives

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