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These 11 Photos Take You Inside Gaza’s Smuggling Tunnels

Nov. 25, 2012 3:40pm Liz Klimas

In the December issue of National Geographic, journalist James Verini and photographer Paolo Pellegrin take an inside look at the “Tunnels of Gaza.” Conducting interviews before the conflict between the Hamas and the Israelis escalated earlier this month, Verini describes how the tunnels are a “lifeline of the underground economy but also a death trap” for Palestinians.

After the eight days of violence and truce struck Wednesday, Hamas has demanded that Israel and Egypt lift all restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Palestinian territory. The restrictions have been imposed since the Islamists seized the territory in 2007. With restrictions, some of which were eased by Israel in recent years, the tunnels have provided the infrastructure for both consumer goods but also weapons to pass between neighboring countries.

Here’s more about the history from Verini about the tunnel system and Israel and Egypt’s relationship to it:

The Rafah underground isn’t new—there have been smuggling tunnels here since 1982, when the city was split following the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, which left part of it in Gaza and part in Egypt. Back then the tunnel well shafts were dug in home basements. The Israeli military, knowing that the tunnels were used for arms trafficking, began demolishing homes that harbored tunnels, as did some Palestinians who wanted to keep the tunnel economy under their control. When that didn’t end the smuggling, Israel later expanded the demolitions, creating a buffer zone between the border and the city.

[...]

After Israel introduced the blockade, smuggling became Gaza’s alternative. Through the tunnels under Rafah came everything from building materials and food to medicine and clothing, from fuel and computers to livestock and cars. Hamas smuggled in weapons. New tunnels were dug by the day—by the hour, it seemed—and new fortunes minted. Families sold their possessions to buy in. Some 15,000 people worked in and around the tunnels at their peak, and they provided ancillary work for tens of thousands more, from engineers and truck drivers to shopkeepers. Today Gaza’s underground economy accounts for two-thirds of consumer goods, and the tunnels are so common that Rafah features them in official brochures.

Here’s a look at the tunnels:

It is because of weapons and other materials being smuggled to terrorists that the Israeli Defense Force blasted the tunnels during the recent conflict, which began with the Hamas shooting rockets at Israel. In fact, TheBlaze’s Sharona Schwartz reported recently about how some of these weapons are thought to be smuggled:

Intelligence officials believe the Fajr-5 missiles are broken apart for shipment, whisked through smuggling tunnels into Gaza and then reassembled by terror groups on the ground.

Last month, a weapons factory in Sudan was destroyed in a bombing Sudanese officials blamed on the Israeli Air Force. Some reports suggested the factory was being used to build Iranian long-range missiles. The Israeli Defense Ministry’s Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs Amos Gilad then said Sudan is a key transit point for shipment of arms to Gaza terrorists.

In the article, Verini wrote he was stunned by how obvious the tunnels were under Egyptian surveillance. He recalled saying “This must be the biggest smuggling operation on Earth,” in part to conceal his astonishment. After taking a trip into the tunnels in an area he wasn’t even supposed to be in as a journalist, a police officer said to Verini “Don’t go into the tunnels. You’ll die,” he wrote of the experience.

Since taking hits from the IDF, repairs on the smuggling tunnels are already underway. This footage shows the construction efforts (via Today’s THV):

Verini called the tunnels “lethally shoddy in [their] construction” in the first place, making repair of the tunnels is dangerous to workers. Verini wrote that “[e]verybody, it seemed, had injuries or health problems.” He reported a worker saying they see the tunnels as “a way to paradise or a way to death.”

Still, Palestinian’s see repair as important for commerce.

The Jewish Press reported Mohamad Aladwan saying the tunnels are being fixed so citizens can “return to our normal life which we need the tunnel for work.” The Jewish Press went on to note that workers interviewed by Reuters said they were not involved with smuggling military materials but only those intended for civilian consumers.

Read more about National Geographic’s account of the tunnels in Verini’s full article here. See National Geographic’s photos of the tunnels here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(H/T: New York Daily News)

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Comments (54)

judyaz
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 1:28am
Ever wonder if Arizona or Texas has tunnels like these from drug cartels and Hezbollah?

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- Salamander
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 10:15pm
  Yes, but with rails, air conditioning, fixed lighting, and maybe even a toll booth or EZ Pass!
  
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- snufy
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 10:56pm
  Salamander, EZ Pass isn’t good west of the Mississippi river. It cost me $205 for that lesson when the Oklahoma Turnpike cops stopped me and told me EZ Pass didn’t work there. It doesn’t work in Texas, either.
  
  Report this comment
universalphilos
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 1:26am
This prophecy was spoken March 2, 1980, after the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty was signed, and Israel was first encouraged by U.S. Presidents to exchange land for peace: “We told you before, the one who would sign the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt would be of the false prophet and would be of the Anti-Christ, and it would be a false peace.”
[Note: The March 26, 1979, Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty was signed by Egyptian President Anwar Al Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and witnessed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose Presidency was from 1977-1981. It seems like each time those who declare themselves Israel's enemies make a peace agreement they manage to win a little more of Israel's land. So even in peace they gain ground preparing for war.]

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ktmrider1
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 9:09pm
hey, America has a surplus of bunker buster bombs that would work good, oh yeah right never mind obama hates jews

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Arshloch
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 4:36pm
An easy solution to the problem would be to mine the tunnels, wait until full of Hamas operatives, then BLOW the charges. Won’t get them all but sure would decrease the quanity

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- garylee123
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 12:55pm
  According to the article “The tunnels are a vital lifeline for supplies of food, clothes, building materials and fuel into the impoverished Palestinian territory subjected to an Israeli blockade since 2006.”
  
  Report this comment
red_white_blue2
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 10:29am
I have no mercy for these thieves and parasites. Let them rot in their tunnels–Napam Them!

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1911a1
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 10:13am
can anyone say: DAISY CUTTER ?

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- NOTALOTTAYITTAYADDA
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 10:32am
  Is that what hit the playground in Syria, or will it be chalked up as brotherhood propaganda?
  http://youtu.be/f4fAWhYkKZc
  
  Report this comment
- Mr. H.
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:24pm
  Wrong bomb. You’d need a string of perpetrators lined up with overlapping cratering in a pattern of total mayhem about 1000 meters wide. That way you’d make unstable soil about 30 meters deep that they would need some big time serious mining equipment to transit.
  
  Report this comment
capelady
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:26am
I find it fascinating that they continually talk about how impoverished the Palestinians are and cite that these tunnels are necessary for vital supplies. The Israelis allow hundreds of trucks filled with food, medicines, and supplies through the road blocks. They will allow anything through as long as it cannot be used for making weapons. The blockade is purely to prevent weapons from being sent into Gaza that will be used against Israel. Funny that you do not see pictures of the new water park in Gaza, the olympic-size swimming pool, the shopping mall, the luxury hotels… the liberal talking points of the Palestinians being impoverished is getting old. If there is poverty there, it is for propaganda purposes and perpetuated by Hamas. And they continue to call Gaza “occupied” when it was turned over completely to the “Palestinians” years ago. The Israelis even left the infrastructure in place for them, and they destroyed everything because it was created by the Jews. A recent leader of Hamas admitted on Egyptian TV that there is no real Palestinian people, they are former Saudis and Egyptians, just as those Arabs in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) are Jordanian. These disparate groups of Arabs were not labeled Palestinians until the 1960s when Arafat needed a label for propaganda purposes and his intifada. It was the Jews where were called Palestinians until Israel became a state and they preferred to be called Israelis.

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Rational Man
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 6:30am
I wonder how much better off the Gaza toilet would be if instead of buying rockets and arms and building tunnels, they would use all those resources for schools and infrastructure and such? It might be a place worthy of human habitation then……..NAH!!….”Lets blow ourselves up instead and blame it on the Jews!

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Willik
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 4:35am
Note the captions harping on the damage done by Israeli attacks and no pictures/captions on the havoc wreaked by the Hamas/Palestinian rocket attacks into Isreal.

Note also the date the pictures were taken that leads one to think the attacks took place that day (25 Nov.) while the ‘cease fire’ was in effect. The attacks didn’t happen on the 25th, but in the weeks before!

Isn’t National Geographic an American publication? Hmmm, not so much, at least according to their reportage.

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- November26
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 5:35am
  Israel needs to defeat them militarily, it’s the only way for lasting peace. Read fresh political commentary at: http://smallcraftadvisorychronicles.blogspot.com/
  
  Report this comment
LeadNotFollow
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:15am
.
Radical Muslims are heathens.
Wish the Israelis had finished what Hamas started.

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BobM
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 1:51am
I kinda wanted “Bebe” to raise his “conductor’s baton” and play “The Gaza Symphony” beginning with a “drum roll” from the 155mm self propelled “base section”. Not a bad idea for the Mexican border. A drone to locate, then “bring the rain” on the INVADERS.

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Chancellor
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 12:18am
The mistake a lot of you puffers and pro’s have is……

Thinking Israel needs the Compulsive Liar’s Permission to do anything!

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- DIgnified
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:54am
  Why would one liar listen to another?
  
  Report this comment
- Fubared
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 9:43am
  Dingyfried
  Still trolling? How many converts you up to? Not a lot of bend and spreaders floating around. Keaton- you do have that.
  
  Report this comment
benrush
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 10:45pm
The Israelis are led by a globalist, Netanyahu.
Why does he always use barely enough force to succeed? he wants to promote a never ending conflict. Which is the way with all globalist trends, its why we don’t have a cure for cancer, but have a 30x increase in the past decades.

We need to stick to the constitutional principles – not get involved in wars abroad but govern ourselves. That’s the path that will work, regardless of what the outside world does.

If you want to go fight, fine. But don’t vote my resources into YOUR bloody wars. Or your neverending welfare scams. Or anything else unconstitutional for that matter.

Don’t fall for the globalist deceptions.

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 11:01pm
  The sycophantic Israel butt-kissers in America are the problem. Worry about America. It’s broke. It’s being invaded by Third World, tunneling Mexicans. They’re stealing our culture. Your kids are doomed because of your stupidity.
  
  Report this comment
- AbrahamsSheepdog
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 12:02am
  Are 2 dating?
  
  Report this comment
- Junter
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 1:26am
  “Why does he always use barely enough force to succeed?”
  
  Would you rather Israel annihilate anyone muslim? Might doesn’t make right buddy. What do you think the response would be from the UN and other nations if they did that? They would be seen as the new Nazis
  
  I do agree, it’s not really our war. Tell that to Hilary Clinton who keeps donating millions of our tax dollars to Israel and muslim countries in an attempt to buy friends. Our tax dollars buy weapons and continue these wars killing many.
  
  Report this comment
- LeadNotFollow
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:31am
  .
  You ask, “Why does Netanyahu always use barely enough force to succeed?”
  The answer, Netanyahu wants to avoid as much collateral damage as possible.
  
  The cowardly Hamas hides behind women and children, in homes, churches, and schools, in residential neighborhoods.
  
  Israel’s military even drops warning flyers all over the areas they are about to bomb, so the civilians will move away from the intended Hamas targets immediately.
  
  Report this comment
- chalkdust
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 5:32am
  You have no idea whats playing out here. Lay off the Alex Jones, do some thinking on your own. I hear the same non-sense from all you Jonesers, decrying the imminent arrival of the globalist’s. Well, you geniuses have been fooled in very unflattering way. No one is plotting globalism because we already have it. You, me, we are all in a global economy now, have been for some time.
  
  Perpetual war is not what Benny is looking for. There is no such thing. You’re to wrapped up in crazy talk to see that Israel is in check now and only a matter of time before their in check mate. They cannot attack Iran successfully without touching off WWIII, if they defend themselves the world increasingly calls them oppressors. Iran will have nukes, probably already do. They will dominate the region and eventually, through proxies (hamas), will drive them into the sea. Russia has sent ships to the region in case fighting escalates. They are allied with Iran. Israel does have a couple of moves left. And I wouldn’t want to be in the region when they run out of moves.
  
  So keep babbling about globalists, banksters, pointing your fingers while the world is re-shaped by MEN! They laugh at you while you repeat over complicated, esoteric bull when it really is not that complex. After all, despite living in a connected world, the same old hatreds and lust for power still exists.
  
  Report this comment
- bertr
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:21am
  I have a different opinion on israel then you do, but i could agree with you on no federal foreign aid across the board for any other country.
  Let people like me and others who support israel keep some of those tax dollars ourselves to individually donate to israel if we choose rather then have the government collect them up from all of us and then sending some to israel to protect them against the people we are funding fighting israel. That would seem to be a win/win for everyone.
  However unlike our federal government seems to be doing openly now, I don’t think individuals should be allowed to provide aid to enemies of the United States, such as al queda and hamas.
  
  Report this comment
- Fubared
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 9:47am
  Jihad jerk
  The proverbial nazi moth to the light. You couldn’t, not post. Hahaha. You are correct on one issue, and you should get your due: the Israelis and Jews own you. Hahahaha. Oh, sorry, it’s lalalalala.
  
  Report this comment
jessieH
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 8:03pm
Nothing a big load of concrete can’t fix.

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OperationNorthwoods
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 7:42pm
We might want to learn how to construct these for ourselves when the government officially labels us terrorists enemies.

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- UNALIEN
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 7:56pm
  yes, that is a problem,, building a southern fence may be used to keep Americans in but there is always escape to Canada
  
  Report this comment
- Pigpen
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 8:06pm
  OPERATIONNORTHWOODS posted: “We might want to learn how to construct these for ourselves when the government officially labels us terrorists enemies.”
  
  Yeah, I am with OPERATIONNORTHWOODS on this one! It is so hard for me to care about Israel or the Middle East now that I am trying to avoid being captured and sentenced to the “FEMA Western States Re-Education Camp #22645″ Sorry, Israel, but YOUR TRIBE voted Obama back in, so I really don’t have a lot of time and/or resources to waste on you and your problems. You think the Palestinians and their tunnels are bad, you should try shaking hands with the Mexican Drug cartels and THEIR smuggling tunnels. It ain’t goats their smuggling through those southern USA tunnels for sacrificing!
  
  http://www.skeptictank.org/files/weird/matamoro.htm
  
  Report this comment
Bodacious_Boedi
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 7:37pm
The Hussein in Chief is the biggest terrorist of them all but his weapon is appeasement.

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AbrahamsSheepdog
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 6:39pm
Rats in tunnels, drown them. No not water uhh Raid. Or a little LP. Pump it in & light a match like they do prarie dogs out here. Heard its a hell of a sight. Back east you wait on the woodchuck aka groundhog pop his head out. Scope,squeeze. Also make into a wonderful stew. Woodchuck is a mean Mother-real Fing mean. They can take down a barn with tunnels too.

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- Twinspeedr
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 7:22pm
  Poverty-sticken Gaza?! They have no one to blame but themselves…
  
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AbrahamsSheepdog
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 6:05pm
Smells like Vietnam. Slayers right, this doesn’t work well to stop momentum. David has to kill Goliath. Not bruise him.

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DZ-015
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 5:27pm
Morlocks!

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UNALIEN
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 4:55pm
Hamas kills wedding party for singing in public

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTNWmae7rms

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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 6:49pm
  Like I said subhumans worthy of being put down for the rabid dogs they are,Israel is dealing with these subhumans and I still don’t understand why they don’t exterminate every one of them once and for all.
  The cease fire only helped the subhumans,they were getting their ass kicked and so they cry for a cease fire,it’s BS Israel stop ****** around and end it permanently.
  
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progressiveslayer
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 4:19pm
The subhumans are subterranean and will go to any lengths to kill Israeli’s and the cease fire was a big mistake. The Israeli’s shouldn’t have agreed to a cease fire ie time for their enemies to reload,they should’ve finished off the subhumans once and for all.

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- jungle J
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 4:33pm
  you should go and lead them first.
  
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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 4:41pm
  You could’ve saved that pearl of wisdom puffer.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 4:46pm
  Worry about America and the tunnels that invading her way of life.
  
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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 4:56pm
  Jerk I do worry about that and wonder why Barry doesn’t secure our southern border. He doesn’t secure it because he wants illegals in here,any way possible and only the gullible would believe otherwise.As for Israel I never said we should get involved and with this particular president we don’t have to worry about that happening anyway.Israel can defeat her enemies and I don’t understand why they don’t eliminate them for good and stop these small skirmishes,be done with it.
  
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- Hawk69
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 8:40pm
  Obama will not give Israel the green light to finish these terrorist jihads off. smh
  
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- DIgnified
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 3:00am
  Why not just wipe the Israelis out along with the Palestinians? Eliminate both problems at the same time. Hitler would be proud of you. Once again, you’re d u m b to the last.
  
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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 8:25am
  @Dignified Insults from morons like you serve no purpose and have no value,you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about so STFU.
  
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FalseFactBob
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 4:11pm
Fun Fact: Tunneling was invented by King Henry during a siege of Isreal during the Crusades. He couldnt penatrate the west wall and all his garrisons were destroyed immediatly by the muslims cannons. King Henry not easily defeated but easily ammused was staring at his ant farm when it occured to him. Those tunnels in gaza are the same tunnels King Henry created during the crusades to over come the great muslim cannons and finaly over took the west wall

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- AbrahamsSheepdog
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 6:27pm
  They used tunnels all through time. Those may be Henry’s but he didn’t invent the shovel. Come on a child could figure that out.
  
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hatchetjob
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 4:10pm
Prince Phillip?

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The_Jerk
Posted on November 25, 2012 at 3:54pm
Here’s a thought. What do you say about focusing on the tunnels at our southern border, where we are being invaded. I don’t care about Israel or Gaza. I care about America and how our internal enemies are distracting us from the real enemy.

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- Acena
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 5:42pm
  Obama won’t touch the Mexican tunnels.
  
  If the US stopped the flow of drugs and illegals into our country ,the Mexican economy would collapse and the illegal and welfare drug dealers in the US would commit double the current crime levels to compensate for their drug income loss.
  
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- The_Jerk
  Posted on November 25, 2012 at 11:04pm
  AbrahamsSheepdog, when are you ever going to say anything?
  
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- AbrahamsSheepdog
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 12:12am
  I speak in code. To other crazies. Pay attention to the meaning stupid humans. See my secret code. 10,000 monkey’s repeating the same crap.
  
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