Rafah, Palestinian Territories
A Palestinian smuggler speaks on an internal phone with the other side of a tunnel beneath the Egyptian-Gaza...
A Palestinian smuggler speaks on an internal phone with the other side of a tunnel beneath the Egyptian-Gaza border in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip September 17, 2012. Egypt's crackdown on smuggling tunnels along its border with the Gaza Strip is making shortages ever tighter and has forced the enclave's Islamist Hamas rulers to consider urgent alternatives. Hamas officials asked Egypt late on Monday to consider alternative trade routes, such as a free trade zone, a direct deal that could boost Hamas tax revenues and circumvent rival Fatah's and Israel's control of official imports to Gaza. Picture taken September 17, 2012. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST)