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Hamas Registers Tunnels

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 9, 2008

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Gaza's smugglers are going legit: Owners of the scores of tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border have registered with the Hamas authorities, pledged to pay workers' compensation and hooked up their operations to the electricity network.

The once-clandestine business has come out into the open. In one place, dozens of large tents, each marking a tunnel work site, were pitched just yards from an Egyptian watchtower beyond the border wall.

With the Gaza Strip's borders virtually sealed by Israel and Egypt for the past 16 months, the tunnels - some 200, by conservative estimate - are among the territory's main lifelines and are seen as vital for keeping the Islamic militant Hamas in power.

Under U.S. pressure, Egypt has been trying harder to clamp down.

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