A child of 6 was one of two people killed when a car hit pedestrians at a bus stop in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday afternoon, Israeli police said.
Five people were injured in the incident, which police described as a “ramming terror attack”, in Ramot, a Jewish settlement.
Officers said an off-duty detective shot and killed the driver at the scene.
Israeli rescue services identified the dead as a boy of 6 and a man in his 20s.
It said medics were treating five injured, including a child of 8 who was in a critical condition and undergoing CPR.
The other injured, whose ages range from 10 to 40, were in moderate to serious condition, said officials.
They had been waiting at the bus stop when the car struck them, police said.
“It was a shocking scene,” said paramedic Lishai Shemesh, who was driving by at the time of the attack.
“I was in the car with my wife and children and noticed a car driving fast into the bus stop and crushing the people who were waiting there.”
Police said the driver was a Palestinian in his 30s from East Jerusalem. Palestinian media identified him as Hussein Qaraqa, 32.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a terrorist attack and ordered security forces to be reinforced.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Islamic Jihad praised the suspected attack but did not immediately claim responsibility.
Speaking at the scene, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered police to set up checkpoints around the driver’s neighbourhood of Issawiya to “check every vehicle”.
The UAE strongly condemned the attack.
In a statement, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation affirmed its rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism aimed at undermining security and stability and expressed condolences to the Israeli government and to the families of the victims.
The US also condemned the attack in Jerusalem. “The deliberate targeting of innocent civilians is repugnant and unconscionable,” a statement by the State Department said.
Tensions have soared in occupied East Jerusalem since a Palestinian gunman killed seven people and wounded at least three on January 27, in the deadliest attack in the city in more than a decade.
Hostilities have escalated in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank since Israel stepped up raids last spring, following a series of deadly Palestinian attacks in Israel.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those territories since 2004, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
Last year, 30 people were killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
So far this year, 43 Palestinians have been killed, according to a count by The Associated Press — 10 of them in an army raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
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.”
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