Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
At least 50 Palestinians were killed and scores injured in Israeli air strikes in Beit Lahia, Khan Younis and Al Maghazi in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, said Ashraf Al Qudra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israeli forces on Thursday bombed Gaza as the centre of fierce combat against Hamas moves steadily south, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
Israeli shelling continued on eastern and central areas of Khan Younis city and east of Rafah in the south of the Palestinian enclave, while the areas of Tel Al Zaatar, Al Sikka, Jabalia Al Balad, and Beit Lahia in the north also endured a barrage of strikes.
The Al Maghazi refugee camp, a UN-run school doubling as a shelter, was hit by shelling overnight.
“They tell you there are green zones and other zones with other colours. All those are rumours, there are no safe zones in Gaza,” a man told AFP on Wednesday.
World Health Organisation (WHO) staff reported that “hungry people again stopped our convoys today in the hope of finding food”. Gazans are facing severe shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine.
An estimated 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced, the UN says.
Israel's relentless bombardment and ground invasions have killed at least 21,000 people, including 8,800 children and 6,300 women, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said.
More than 55,000 have been injured and more than 335,000 of the internally displaced are suffering from infectious diseases, it said.
Israeli forces have so far destroyed 65,000 residential units and partially destroyed 290,000 units, the Gaza media office said.
About 115 mosques have been destroyed, while 200 mosques and three churches have suffered heavy damage. Dozens of government buildings and 92 schools and universities were reduced to rubble.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that strikes on a central refugee camp in Gaza had entered a third day and an additional brigade had been sent to the southern city of Khan Yunis, the recent focus of heavy urban combat.
He suggested a possible “expansion of fighting in the north” along the Lebanese border, where repeated exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants have occurred since the start of the war.
After a visit to the border, army chief Herzi Halevi said the military had approved plans for "a variety of contingencies" adding: "We need to be prepared to strike if required.”
The continued air strikes and the expansion of operations in the south came as the WHO said on Wednesday that Gaza's population was in “grave peril”.
The government media office said 311 medical personnel have been killed, as have 40 civil defence officers and more than 100 journalists.
About 7,000 people are still missing, the office added, of which 70 per cent are women or children,
Regional escalation
On Thursday, a drone crashed near a village in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, the Israeli army said, with an Iraqi faction close to Hamas claiming responsibility for an attack in the area.
The war has raised fears of a broader regional conflict, with recent attacks on shipping by Houthi rebels in Yemen acting in solidarity with Hamas.
Israel wants Hezbollah – which says it is acting in support of Hamas – to withdraw further from the border and has threatened to achieve that goal by overwhelming force, if necessary.
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.”
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
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