Few days ago I went to Rafah Crossing to pick up my bag from my last failed attempt to leave Gaza, an hour ride from my family’s residence in Northern Gaza. On my way back on the seven-passenger car, a young man sat next to me and he was on the spunky side. He seemed to be in a hurry to go home and the cab driver was waiting for the last passenger to show up so that we can leave. I started talking the twenty something young man. He had a duffle bag with him that he had on his lab the entire trip and I learned that he is form a nearby town. He announced to the entire car that today is his last trip to Rafah as he no longer will be coming to this town as he just retired from working in the tunnels. Upon hearing tunnels, I got curious and started asking questions; Yusuf was generous with his answers.

He is twenty years old, a heavy smoker and has been working in the tunnels for a year and a half. He makes about 60 Dollars a day working 12 hours shift in Rafah tunnels. The benefits include three meals and two packs of cigarettes each working day. The same work in Gaza in a different profession will earn him 10 dollars but because of the obvious risk he makes a lot more at the tunnels. His first tunnel job paid him 12 bucks a day and no cigarettes.

The tunnel where he used to work is 30 meters deep and 750 meters long and they smuggle mainly beverages and food supplies, all Egyptian goods. He also worked in digging the tunnel itself and talked of opening the tunnel at the wrong ends like one time as they were digging they ended up at an Egyptian military compound and another at sewage well. To know they are digging the tunnel in the right direction, they use sharp metal tubes that go all the way up and have a flag at their tip where their Egyptian partner will help guide their direction. Yusuf admitted of the danger of those tubes as they dig up, the sand might move and causing a sudden collapse. To make sure the sand does not collapse and kill workers, the tunnel builders use wood to support the sand and contain it. As far as the sand goes, whatever sand they extract from the ground they bring up and sell to builders who use it in construction. Once the tunnel is all dug and good to go, the owners start seeing money come in.

Most tunnels have industrial air compressors that pump cold air in the tunnel to make sure workers get fresh air. Yusuf said that the air compressors make it cold down under and he sometimes has to wear a coat to stay warm. According to Yusuf in the winter however, the tunnel is warm and a pleasant place to work at. There is also a plastic pipe that smokers can use to exhale the smoke. Yusuf said that he has few fears working underground; his most scary fear is the Egyptians pumping gas that will suddenly kill all workers, a technique that the Egyptian army used before. Yusuf also spoke of their Egyptians guardian “Al Ameen” the guy who receives the goods and puts it in the tunnel on the Egyptians side. In his words, “Al Ameen” used to beg for work, now as they got rich, they are always taking vacations and not putting as many hours.

Yusuf also told me that he was detained in an Egyptian jail for two weeks, as he was caught once at the Egyptian end. The way he was tortured is to attach his front to a cross where his back would be hanging and they would whip him. Yusuf says that not all tunnels make profit, as there are smaller ones that make some money until a contractor takes over the tunnel and expand it. The biggest tunnel operator in Rafah is a member of al Dabor family.

Working in the tunnel is so daunting that Yusuf and his buddies rarely fast Ramadan and always use feel good drugs to help them get through the shift. Occasionally the tunnel workers get bottles of liquor in, so they would get a taste of that too. Now I asked Yusuf why he is calling it quit? He told me that every morning he leaves for work, he sees of his family as if he is not returning home. Many young men die in the tunnels and thus their families struggle to let them go work in those conditions. According to Yusuf, if you die working in a tunnel, and the Hamas government investigates, the victim family gets upward of thirty thousand dollars for their loss. Thus Yusuf and his family decided he will no longer take this risk. The guy admits that even thought he makes a lot of money in the tunnel, he does not feel his money is any good as he spends it away.

I almost did not believe Yusuf’s story about quitting not until we reached our destination and he pulled out of the trunk his pillow, blanket and mattress. Yusuf now will use a skill he’s picked up from his uncle who studied in Germany—how to custom make paints and get the right colors by mixing different colors.

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