"We have to sign on a guarantee that if any of the workers gets killed in the tunnel, the tunnel's owner should compensate the victim's family with 30,000 US dollars," said Abu Hadid.

The residents in Rafah told Xinhua that the cost of building a tunnel about 13 meters deep and 300 meters long is around 110,000 US dollars. Digging and construction of the tunnel usually takes three months and involves up to 50 diggers.

The owners' return on their investment depends on the type and price of the goods they are smuggling. Owners charge a 15-percent add-on on merchants or individuals moving goods through their tunnels.

"In the beginning, when tunnels' business was launched two years ago, we thought it is a heroic action aims at breaking the Israeli siege, but now and after my best friend Ayman died, I could certainly say that those tunnels are turning into tunnels of death and not tunnels of life," Younis told Xinhua.

According to the Gaza-based al-Mezan human rights center, ten Palestinians were killed in smuggling tunnels since Sunday, including seven were burned to death, two were suffocated and one died of electric shock. The group said in a press release that over the past two years 112 local tunnels workers were killed.

"The elevating death toll of people working in tunnels is tocsin, and the local authorities which rule the Gaza Strip should immediately find the proper way to save the lives of dozens of young local workers in tunnels," said al-Mezan.

General Yousef al-Zahar, chief of civil defense in Hamas ministry of interior said that the reason of having more incidents and disasters in tunnels "is because the tunnels' owners are not fully cooperating with our civil defense forces to prevent more future incidents."

Abu el-Baraa, a tunnel owner in Rafah town denied al-Zahar's claim and said that the problem is not because of lack of cooperation and coordination, "the problem is the Israeli siege that should be immediately lifted. I'm ready to close my tunnel as soon as Israel ends the siege and reopens all Gaza crossing points."

Ibrahim Abu Mo'ammar, chief of the National Association for Law and Democracy in Rafah town told Xinhua his organization intends to go for an awareness campaign in the town to explain to the disparate young workers that working in tunnels would be too dangerous on their lives.

Asked about the reason behind the increase of incidents in tunnels after ten people were killed this week, Abu Mo'ammar said "there is chaos of digging tunnels, while the underground soil is completely sandy, in addition to the concussion bombs were fired at the borderline zone to destroy the tunnels."

"I believe that the only solution to end such daily disasters is to lift the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. Also the government of Hamas must imposed tough restrictions on the use of tunnels in order to avoid more disasters in the future," said Abu Mo'ammar.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2009)