Owners of smuggling tunnels under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt Tuesday went on a strike in protest to the ruling Hamas movement's decision to raise tax on smuggled goods.

The tunnels' owners in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah told Xinhua that many underground tunnels stopped working Tuesday and they refused to receive any smuggled staff coming from Egypt.

They said their decision was made after the de facto administration of Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since June 2007, decided to increase the tax on the stuff and goods smuggled from Egypt through tunnels.

Speaking to Xinhua on condition of anonymity, the tunnels' owners said that the tax that Hamas imposes on their business "had reduced to a great extent their income and profit."

They complained that over the past two years, Hamas had imposed high taxation on their business, that is considered a major income for their living.

Workers in the tunnels said the Hamas authorities imposed tax of 10 Israeli shekels (some 2.6 U.S. dollars) on each ton gravel and 20 shekels on each ton of cements and 50 shekels on each ton of iron bars.

"This would harm the industry of construction in the Gaza Strip, " said one of the workers, adding that the tunnels' owners and workers went on a general strike as a protest to increased tax on construction raw materials.

Owners of the tunnels expect that if the government of Hamas doesn't regret its decision, the smuggling process through the tunnels will completely stop.

"We don't oppose collecting tax at all for the smuggled staff brought into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, but the tax must be also reasonable," said an owner of a tunnel, who declined to give his name.

After Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip following Hamas' violent takeover of the coastal enclave in June 2007, the Palestinians dug hundreds of tunnels under the border with Egypt to get their needs for living.

However, the tunnels' business retreated after the late 2008 Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and after Israel eased the blockade following its attack on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May 2010, during which nine Turkish activists were killed.