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For the Berjaoui family, it was a normal day – as normal as it could be with a war raging only a few kilometres away from their house in Nabatieh, in the south of Lebanon.
Hussein and his wife, Amal, had invited seven of their family members for dinner.
Lebanon's southern border has witnessed intense fighting since October 8, when Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, opened a second front against Israel to divert its forces from their onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
Until recently, Nabatieh had been spared the violence.
The city, located relatively far from the border, is theoretically outside an area where unwritten rules of engagement between the two sworn enemies apply.
Both sides have tried to limit escalation amid on-and-off clashes over the years, since a devastating, month-long war in 2006 that killed about 1,200 people in Lebanon.
But the rules have been loosely respected lately.
At about 9pm, as the family was sitting around the table, several Israeli air strikes struck the building, killing seven family members.
Only the son-in-law, Ali Amer, and his three-year-old son, Hussein, survived. A viral video shows a young boy covered in blood being rescued from the rubble at night.
“They were civilians. Hussein was a mechanic. If anything, he was scared of the bombs. I didn't expect their house to be targeted, but I'm not surprised at all, considering what Israel is doing in Gaza, targeting hospitals and schools,” said a family member who declined to give his name.
The man was among a group of people gathered to watch the rescue efforts on Thursday evening, hours after the tragedy happened, searching for bodies in the rubble of the partially destroyed building. At the back of the building, the contents of several apartments were scattered across the muddy ground.
Israel said it struck a “Hezbollah military structure" in Nabatieh that night and killed a number of Hezbollah fighters, including a commander in the group's elite Radwan Force, Ali Mohammed Debs and his deputy.
Hezbollah on Thursday confirmed the deaths of three of its fighters, including Mr Debs, without giving their ranks.
It did not comment on the killing of the family in the strike on Wednesday.
Bloodiest day for civilians
That day, at least 10 civilians were killed, including the Berjaoui family in Nabatieh, and a mother and her two children in Sawaneh, in separate Israeli air strikes across Lebanon.
This was the bloodiest day for civilians in Lebanon since the war started, marking a serious escalation in terms of the number of civilians killed and injured and the depth of the strikes within Lebanon, reaching as far as 35km from the border.
Cross-border violence has claimed the lives of at least 254 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also 40 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.
“The recent rise in civilian killings in south Lebanon is extremely worrying,” Ramzi Kais, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, told The National.
Wednesday’s attack was Israel’s retaliation after a barrage of rockets claimed to have been fired by Hezbollah hit the northern Israeli town of Sefad, killing a female soldier and injuring several.
The attack was described by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as “a declaration of war”.
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the escalation on Thursday.
“At a time where we are insisting on calm and are calling on all sides to not escalate, we find the Israeli enemy extending its aggression,” his office quoted him as saying.
Fears of full-scale war
Fears of a full-scale war are at an all-time high after Wednesday.
The Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant said that his country could bomb any part of Lebanese territory, whether it be “20km” or “50km” from the border, “in Beirut or anywhere else”.
“But the escalation is still controlled," political analyst Joseph Daher told The National.
This is mainly because the "the US has not given its green light for Israel to start an offensive in Lebanon,” Mr Daher explained.
Israel has threatened several times to launch a military operation in Lebanon if its demand for the withdrawal of Hezbollah's elite forces 30km from the border is not met.
Hezbollah has said it will not negotiate over anything as long as the war in Gaza is continuing, while making it clear that it does not want to engage in a full-scale war with Israel.
Yet, the militant group feels the need to retaliate without providing Israel a case for expanding the war.
“What happened was premeditated. If Israel only wanted to target the fighters, it could have avoided civilians,” said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in his Friday speech.
The first retaliation on Thursday at the Kiryat Shmona barracks was only “a first response”, he added.
“The enemy will pay the price for the deaths of our women and children killed in recent days”.
‘They died as martyrs’
At the scene, people expressed their full confidence in Hezbollah, which holds sway in the south of Lebanon.
They said that here, in a region that was under Israeli occupation until 2000, locals are used to losing loved ones to Israel's attacks, throughout decades marked by wars and massacres.
“Locals in Nabatieh have nourished the soil with their blood,” said a neighbour. “They want to scare us, but they're the ones who should be afraid.”
“They died as martyrs, for the resistance,” added another family member.
A couple of minutes later, a car passed by the scene. A woman was wailing through the windows.
“It's probably a family member,” said one man.
The crowd watched her drive away as her cries gradually faded into the distance.
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Transmission: seven-speed
Power: 620bhp
Torque: 760Nm
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
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- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
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Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
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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.”
2019 ASIA CUP POTS
Pot 1
UAE, Iran, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia
Pot 2
China, Syria, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Qatar, Thailand
Pot 3
Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, India, Vietnam
Pot 4
North Korea, Philippines, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, Turkmenistan
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- Previously worked at The Guardian, BBC’s Newsnight programme and ITV News
- Took up a public relations role for Chancellor Rishi Sunak in April 2020
- In October 2020 she was hired to lead No 10’s planned daily televised press briefings
- The idea was later scrapped and she was appointed spokeswoman for Cop26
- Ms Stratton, 41, is married to James Forsyth, the political editor of The Spectator
- She has strong connections to the Conservative establishment
- Mr Sunak served as best man at her 2011 wedding to Mr Forsyth
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
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Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Uefa Nations League: How it Works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
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'Champions'
Director: Manuel Calvo
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Rating: 2/5
Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
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Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
