The Palestinians hone another skill...

They're mastering rockets, suicide bombs, and tunnel-making...everything needed for the 21st century....

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.

"The tunnels have become the main source of commodities in Gaza, and every day the closure continues, the importance of the tunnels increases as well," said Gaza economist Omar Shaaban.

The underground imports — from refrigerators, food and clothes to fuel and anti-tank rockets — help to keep Gaza's economy afloat. But Israel says they are also building up Hamas' arsenal.