At least 21 people, including seven children, were killed in a fire in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian official news agency reported on Thursday.
An investigation has been opened into the cause of the blaze, a civil defence spokesman told Palestinian news outlets.
Hamas militants, who control the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave, said firefighters had contained the blaze in Jabalia that left charred walls and mounds of black soot.
The head of the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, Saleh Abu Laila, told AFP that the centre had received the bodies of at least seven children.
Initial reports indicate the fire was caused by large amounts of benzene stored in an apartment.
Footage posted to social media showed the entire building, in the Tar Al Zatar area of the camp, ablaze as large crowds gathered at the site.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, considered the fire to be "a national tragedy", his spokesman said.
Mr Abbas declared a day of mourning on Friday, with flags to be flown at half-mast, and offered to send aid to families of the victims to "ease their suffering", spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said.
Witnesses told Reuters they were unable to help people trapped inside because of the intensity of the blaze.
Senior PA official Hussein Al Sheikh urged Israel to open the Erez crossing that connects Gaza with southern Israel and is normally closed at night.
This would allow critically hurt patients to be moved "to treat them outside the Gaza Strip if necessary", Mr Al Sheikh said.
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz tweeted that his staff would assist with "humanitarian evacuations of the injured to [Israeli] hospitals", expressing sympathy over the "serious disaster".
A large crowd of onlookers gathered on the street outside the multi-storey home as the blaze raged, sending plumes of smoke billowing out the top of the concrete building.
Jabalia is a refugee camp is in the northern Gaza Strip and is the largest of eight refugee camps in the densely populated enclave.
The camp now includes large buildings and in many respects resembles a city.
The UN Works and Relief Agency, which helps Palestinian refugees, says the camp is overcrowded and many residents live in substandard conditions.
Crowds remained on the street, with hundreds of police and emergency response workers on hand, after the blaze had been extinguished.
Gaza, densely populated with 2.3 million people, has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, a measure Israel says is necessary to contain threats from armed groups in the strip.
With electricity supply sparse in the impoverished territory, domestic blazes are common, as Gazans seek alternative sources for cooking and light, including kerosene lamps.
This year Gaza received an average of 12 hours of mains electricity daily, up from just seven hours five years ago, according to UN data.
New dangers arise in the winter when many people burn coal for heat.
Hamas said an investigation was under way to determine the cause.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
