Tunnel workers prepare to lower someone into the tunnels. Photo: Zoriah (flickr)

The tunnels in Gaza were an invention of necessity. They flourished during a three-year blockade of goods from Israel into Palestine. Trade had to come from somewhere. And it did — these underground tunnels were used to import everything from food to building supplies to weaponry from Egypt into Palestine. At its height, the several hundred tunnels provided jobs to thousands of Palestinians. According to the Christian Science Monitor and the Associated Press however, roughly a few dozen tunnels are up and running after Israel eased the blockade in June, and smugglers are taking home only a fraction of what they used to — if they managed to hold onto their jobs at all.

While the ease of the blockade is seen globally as an improvement for the conditions of the Palestinian people, Gazan smugglers find themselves lamenting the days when trade was booming and people had work. "This is my first work day in the past two weeks," Khalil Saleh, 19, told the Associated Press.

In effort to keep business alive in Gaza, some smugglers are working on exporting food and goods now allowed from Israel into Egypt, according to the Christian Science Monitor. The most commonly smuggled exports are scrap metal, as well as Israeli food, which costs more in Egypt where inflation and rising food costs continue to be a problem. But smugglers are still not making what they used to, and the job remains a risky one.

Saber Salem told the Associated Press about the challenges he faces as a tunnel operator:

Life is very difficult and our work faces many risks and obstacles.... Hamas inspects our shipments and tunnels because they fear drug trafficking. The Egyptian security has set up many roadblocks on side roads.

Salem has seen his own business decline drastically. During the blockade, he ran three tunnels and had upwards of 40 employees working for him. Now he runs only one tunnel, and has just 15 employees.

The ease of the blockade, while quieting some of the recent criticism facing Israel, provides little long-term economic relief in Gaza and the West Bank. As long as Israel holds tight to bans on industry-creating goods like building, textile, and agricultural supplies, Gaza and the West Bank will remain economically dependent on the failing tunnels and Palestinians won't see any real relief.

A Palestinian man looks out towards destroyed buildings following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Photo: Amir Farshad Ebrahimi (flickr)

A stated aim of Israel's military strikes in Gaza was to destroy underground tunnels between Egypt and Gaza because they're used by Hamas to smuggle in weapons.

But Gazans argue that there are two kinds of tunnels running from Gaza to Egypt: militant and civilian. Hamas-controlled tunnels are "supposedly steel-ribbed and large enough for a car to pass through," according to Time. And unlike civilians, who dig in plain sight of the Egyptian border security and Israeli surveillance aircraft, Hamas members are more secretive and obscure about the location of their tunnels.

Gaza's civilians claim their tunnels are necessary. Israel essentially sealed Gaza's borders to everything but humanitarian aid after Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007, making the tunnels the only means for transporting everything from medicine, cement, chocolate bars, and even lion cubs for the zoo, according to Time.

"It's a lie to say that we use these tunnels to only bring in weapons. We're bringing in the ordinary stuff that keeps Gaza alive. If the Israelis opened the border crossings, we wouldn't have to be doing this," a Gazan resident tells Time.

According to the New York Times, the tunnels are also a primary source of income for some 25,000 young men. Tunnel diggers can earn $100 for every meter they dig — making the tunnels one of the biggest sources of employment in the territory. And they were back to digging as soon as the truce was signed.

"If Israel keeps the borders sealed off, we'll keep digging and only Allah can stop us. Let the Israelis drop their bombs. Without the tunnels we can't survive anyway," says Aymad, a tunnel digger. "And if a bomb catches me underground, well, they won't have to dig my grave."