Not that this was totally unexpected, but sure is a slap in the face of Cairo given how highly funded this border steel barrier project was. As a tunneler once told me- “we will always find a way around, we are like rabbits under the ground”. Block and close and asphyxiate and bomb and kill and imprison all you want, Gaza has never and will never go down.

For the complete video, go here.

The Egyptian government says it began constructing the barrier along the Gaza-Egypt border last year. When finished it is meant to be 11km-long (seven miles), stretching down 18m (59ft) underground.

According to Egypt it is made of bomb-proof, super-strength steel and is costing millions of dollars to build.

Mohammed smiles when he hears this.

“We pay around a $1,000 (£665) for a man with an oxygen-fuelled cutter to come and break through it. It takes up to three weeks to cut through but we get there in the end,” he says. The blockade has meant that Gaza is to a great extent dependent on the smuggling tunnels from Egypt. Millions of dollars worth of goods are smuggled in every month.

Everything from fridges to fans, sheep to shampoo comes through the tunnels. The BBC even obtained video footage this year of whole brand-new cars being dragged through tunnels from Egypt.

The UN estimates that as much as 80% of imports into Gaza come through the tunnels.

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