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Displaced Lebanese citizens have expressed doubt that a temporary truce agreed on by Israel and Hamas will hold on Friday.
The four-day halt in fighting is expected to start at 7am local time on Friday (9am UAE time), followed by the release of some of the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas militants on October 7, mediators in Qatar said.
But those living near Lebanon's border with Israel are wary of the agreement remaining in place.
“There is no trust. Who should we trust, even? Israel? They are killing children, the wounded, newborns and the elderly in hospitals. Would you trust them?” asked Baker Ghrayeb, who lives in Dhayra, a village close to Lebanon's southern border.
The village has for the past six weeks been the scene of intense cross-border fire between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.
“I hope we can go back if the fighting stops. It's our land, after all,” he said as children ran around a university hall that has been turned into a makeshift camp for the displaced, while others played inside large tents marked with the UN refugee agency logo.
Mr Ghrayeb fled the intense violence in Dhayra a couple of weeks ago, a village whose population has been reduced to a few dozen. He is now sheltering at the Lebanese German University in Tyre, a city in southern Lebanon spared from fighting, along with 30 families from the same village.
About 40,000 people fled the border violence, which has killed at least 107 people, among them 15 civilians, AFP reported.
On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, authorities said.
Israel and armed groups led by Hezbollah have engaged in fighting, following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7 and the retaliatory strikes on Gaza.
A Hezbollah source told The National on Wednesday that the armed group will halt its attacks on Israel when the temporary truce comes into effect in Gaza, provided Israel also pauses its attacks.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the Lebanon-Israel border was a “front of pressure” to divert some of the Israeli military from Gaza.
But there is uncertainty over the extent to which the pause will be respected in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the country made no commitments regarding violence on its northern border. Hezbollah will be judged “by its actions”, he said.
At the school, some displaced people said they wanted to return to their villages for duration of the pause, while others plan to make intermittent trips to collect winter essentials. The tarpaulin at the university entrance seemingly offers meagre protection against the cold.
Some have opted not to return at all.
The displaced Dhayra residents are still traumatised by events on the night of October 16 to 17, when the village faced heavy Israeli shelling with white phosphorus, a highly toxic substance can cause fires and inflict severe injuries.
They refer to that harrowing night, which emptied most of the village, as the "black evening". Amnesty International has called for an investigation into the incident, saying the attack on civilians could be deemed a "war crime".
“They bombed us from 2am to 6am. We couldn't see anything. We had to wait until morning to be able to leave. I'm young and I was suffocating. Can you imagine what it was like for the elderly?” asked Oday Amer, 29, a farmer who lost all of his crops due to the white phosphorus.
Israel has denied using white phosphorus shells against civilians.
'Lesson learnt'
The situation brought back memories of painful historical events for some in southern Lebanon, from the Israeli occupation of region from 1985 to 2000, to the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel in which 1,200 died on the Lebanese side over 34 days.
“We have learnt the lesson from 2006,” said Ali Abou Samra, 47, a displaced villager. He was referring specifically to an attack on Marwahin, when 23 civilians were killed by an Israeli strike while attempting to flee after Israel ordered them to leave the area.
“The Israeli army said they would not start firing. They gave an hour for people to leave, but they struck anyway. Most of the people who were killed were children, the elderly and women,” he recalled.
It was among the Israeli attacks on civilians in the 2006 war documented by Human Rights Watch, which denounced Israel's “systematic failure” to distinguish between militants and civilians.
“We have no trust in the truce,” said Nader Sweid, 43, a displaced villager from Dhayra who lost his mother in an Israeli strike during the 2006 war.
He said his mother died from her injuries in hospital because an ambulance could not reach her on time, as Israel would not cease its shelling.
The incident is "the best sign that Israel doesn't respect humans. They don't even respect ambulances or civil defence. They will strike anyone", Mr Abou Samra added.
AS IT STANDS IN POOL A
1. Japan - Played 3, Won 3, Points 14
2. Ireland - Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1, Points 11
3. Scotland - Played 2, Won 1, Lost 1, Points 5
Remaining fixtures
Scotland v Russia – Wednesday, 11.15am
Ireland v Samoa – Saturday, 2.45pm
Japan v Scotland – Sunday, 2.45pm
The Year Earth Changed
Directed by:Tom Beard
Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough
Stars: 4
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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.”
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
