Rebuilding the business

GAZA STRIP: Following three weeks of bombing by Israel, an uneasy peace in the Gaza Strip has brought with it an attempt to return to daily life. Children are going back to school — and the businesses that smuggle goods into the region through underground tunnels are back at work.

Hundreds of tunnels run underneath the divided city of Rafah on the Egyptian border. Destroying the network of tunnels, which have been used to smuggle weapons and rockets into the Palestinian territory, was one goal of the bombings that began in late December.

Residents of the Gaza Strip say that most of the tunnels are used as passageways for essentials that are unavailable due to Israel's blockade of the borders. The smugglers bring food, including live animals, electronics, clothing and other goods. Fuel is also pumped through pipelines in the tunnels.

The tunnels cost $40,000 to $90,000 to build, and bring the smugglers up to $10,000 per day, Gazan economist Omar Shaban told The Guardian last October. Up to 25,000 people are involved in smuggling, Shaban says.

About 70 per cent of the tunnels were destroyed or damaged by the bombing, according to estimates. "There is some damage," one underground businessman who calls himself Khalir told the Toronto Star. "We are rebuilding it."