Black Market: Dispatches (2016): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Tunnels of Gaza - full transcript

Suffering under economic blockade, Gazans use an illegal network of tunnels to smuggle in goods to survive. But the tunnels are under attack from Israel and Egypt.

How do you -- how do you
wrap your mind around

risking your life that much
every day

just to put food on the table?

My God.

We are in Gaza, and basically,
a few steps in front of me

is the official borderline
into Egypt.

Got a lot respect for Dina Amer
for, you know,

having the courage to go down
in those Gaza tunnels

and giving us just a glimpse
of what it must be like

to live under one of the
harshest embargoes in the world.

We're 30 meters underground
right now.



At any moment,
this could collapse,

or even the Egyptians
could bomb us.

Everybody in Gaza feels
like they're denied everything --

food, basic medical supplies.

It feels like
what we would consider a prison.

Our goal is just to simply show
the world a window

as to why people do
the things they do

and where that desperation
comes from.

It's like they say,
when the system fails you...

...you create your own system.

We're in this caged corridor,

which is the official crossing
into Gaza.

There's a feeling already
that we're entering a place

that's clearly cut off
from the rest of the world.



Tunnels provide
a black market economy

and a way for people to
transport goods into Gaza

because it is very difficult
to get things in

through the official crossing.

This is the end point
of the tunnel economy.

The central market in Rafah.

And this little package
of chocolates is from Turkey,

and it came from the tunnels.

Smuggled goods can be marked up
as much as 500%,

so a gallon of milk
that might cost the equivalent

of $4 in Egypt
can go for $20 in Gaza.

Three wars in 10 years have left
the economy in Gaza destroyed.

The series of conflicts began
in 2006

when the militant group Hamas
won an election

and took control of Gaza.

In response, Israel has tried
to cut off Hamas from the world,

only allowing a limited amount
of humanitarian aid in.

So Gazans began digging
over 2,500 tunnels

to Israel and to Egypt

that delivered everything
from water to livestock

to cigarettes to medicine.

But Hamas also uses some tunnels

to move weapons and fighters
into Israel.

So Israel began a campaign
to destroy them.

But another conflict here
is with Egypt.

Egypt stepped up its presence
along the border with Gaza

after an attack killed
dozens of soldiers.

When hardline general
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

took power in a coup in 2012,

he ordered his men to start
destroying the tunnels

he claims connect militants
in Egypt's Sinai to Gaza.

The last remaining tunnels are
owned by a small group of men,

some of whom are Gaza's
wealthiest merchants.

We meet up with two of them

to learn what it takes
to build and run a tunnel

and to see if we can get
permission to film in one.

We get permission to go
down in one of their tunnels

that had been bombed
but is being rebuilt.

We're driving to Rafah now,

the border crossing
between Egypt and Gaza

and the ground zero
of the tunnel economy.

So, we just crossed
a security checkpoint.

We are in a heavily militarized
area right now.

This is Rafah, the border
crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

All of these mounds of sand
is the remnants

of what's been dug up to create
the tunnels, essentially.

So on the other side
of this mound is Egypt.

Hamas soldiers stand
on dirt mounds

and look out
at their Egyptian counterparts

just 100 yards away.

The Egyptians are freaking out.

They've managed
to see our cameras,

and they're threatening
to shoot us.

He's gonna let me go up.

The Egyptian soldiers warn
our team to leave the area,

or they will open fire.

Despite the threats,
our contacts agree to take us

to a tunnel entrance
just a couple hundred yards away

hidden under a tent.

Going down!

Holy shit.

My God.

This is fucking scary.

Guys.

Are there people here?

Wow, yeah.

Even though we're 30 meters
underground right now,

there's electricity, there's,
microphones

that they have connected here
so that they can communicate.

But, of course at any
moment, this could collapse,

or even the Egyptians
could bomb us.

The tunnel will be used
to smuggle goods

to the Palestinians living here
under an economic blockade.

Okay.

I meet a 15- and 16-year-old

who have been digging tunnels
for more than two years.

All right, here we go.

We decide to head further
into the tunnel,

closer to the Egyptian border.

Wow.

I'm in a tunnel under Gaza's
border with Egypt

that will be used
to smuggle contraband into Gaza.

So -- so, basically, they --

they use,
this machinery over here

to pull in, um, bags of sand
so they can dig in deeper

and get further into Egypt.

Um, these workers don't want
to have their faces revealed,

so this is -- this is really,
really dangerous for them.

We should -- we --
we need to move out

because their lives are
in danger basically right now

if their faces are revealed.

Okay.
I think we need to --

These guys have hundreds
of yards left to dig

before they can break
the surface

and connect with
their Egyptian partners.

Whoo!

Being down their
makes you realize

just how bad things are in Gaza.

With unemployment at 45%
and so few goods coming in,

you can understand why Gazans
are willing to risk so much

to build these tunnels.

Mohammed Omer is an author
and journalist

who covers the illegal tunnel
economy that keeps Gaza alive.

Here we are in Rafah.

This is your neighborhood?
- Yeah.

You've been here all your life?
Yes.

Rafah is just filled
with buildings like these

that are just completely,
like, destroyed from the war?

Well, I mean, this is one of the
best buildings, if you ask me.

Really?

This area used to be filled
with working tunnels. Yes.

Remember that this used to be
the hub of the economy

in the Gaza Strip.

The tunnels economy
at least employed

30,000 to 40,000 workers.

Between the period of June 2013
until October 2013,

the Gaza de facto authorities
said that they had lost

$460 million in revenues
from this tunnel.

Wow. So they would tax each item
coming through the tunnels.

- Yes, indeed.
- Hamas would tax it, of course.

Yeah, you have to get
a clearance beforehand

of what's coming,
and then you need to bring it.

Even if you are bringing sheeps,
animals,

if you bring cows from Egypt
through the tunnels,

you need to make sure that
they go through the tax system,

which will provide the money
and revenue

to the Palestinian
de facto authorities in Gaza.

If we look from here,
the Egyptian side,

it's being completely destroyed

because Egypt has started
this policy of,

creating a buffer zone
of 500 meters.

And then they have decided
to increase it into another 500.

And now it's even going beyond
one kilometer of destruction

as we see.

Why do you think the Egyptians
are so threatened by the tunnels?

Why do they have such an
investment in destroying them?

It's actually to crash the Hamas
government in the Gaza Strip

and also to --
not to create any linkage

between Hamas and the remains
of the Muslim Brotherhood.

If you stay here
for one more hour,

you will hear
massive bombardment

throughout the night, and
it stays until early morning.

These bombings have meant
getting access

to an operational tunnel is
proving really difficult.

Our local producer, Mohammed,

has been trying to get
permission from Hamas.

Yeah.

So, they have, like, control
over all the tunnels.

They're aware of every single tunnel
that's going out of Gaza. Yeah.

And no one can get access to it
without their permission.

Yeah. 'Cause if they trust you,
they give you everything.

But if they don't trust you,
they don't give you anything.

So, we have to get them
to trust us.

- Exactly.
- Okay.

Great.

We're waiting on Hamas.

I'm in Gaza,

and we're waiting on word
form Hamas

to film inside
one of the illegal tunnels

that bring in contraband goods.

In the meantime, I want to meet
some of the families

that depend on these tunnels
to survive.

So I headed to the mosque
for Friday prayers.

After the service,
I met a young woman named Ahlam.

Ahlam invited us into her home.

She lives with her parents,

who were well off
before the blockade.

My mother.

My sister.

This is their Friday-night meal.

They couldn't find any meat
at the market.

Her father had to spend
two days of wages

to buy a few cans of chickpeas,
some vegetables, and pita bread.

Even a middle-class family like
Ahlam's depends on the tunnels.

As the bombings continue,
security has tightened.

I linked back up with Mohammed

to see if he heard back
from Hamas.

We are heading to Rafah to
see one of the few tunnels left.

We were lucky to see that
and access this tunnel

because he's -- he's afraid that
if someone will know about that

they're gonna destroy these
tunnel later by air strike.

We have finally got permission

to film inside
an operational tunnel.

It takes up to 40 minutes

for these sleds
to make the mile-long journey

from deep inside Egypt to Gaza.

On this night, only a dozen
shipments made it through.

One carried medicine for
one of Gaza's main hospitals.

Another sled had potato chips.

This is only a fraction
of the goods

that used to move
through the border

when their were thousands
of tunnels.

Poverty is increasing in Gaza.

Young people are having no jobs.

There are no chances.

They're just gonna create
more hatred

by segregating and separating
the Palestinians

from the rest of the world.

Since we filmed,
the tunnel I went down in

was flooded
by the Egyptian military.

The workers I met are safe,

but now there are only
a couple of tunnels left,

further cutting off Gaza
from the outside world

and making people more desperate
for new tunnels to open.