Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Asmahan, an 11-year-old Palestinian displaced in Gaza, has described the moment Israelis struck the school in which she and her family were sheltering, leaving them stuck under rubble for an hour.
The horrific incident took place in the besieged enclave a few days ago.
"My siblings and I were at school when three missiles struck," she said. "We were stuck under the rubble for an hour.
"Even now I struggle to fall asleep at night, plagued of dreams of being trapped under the rubble"
Asmahan’s three siblings are in the third, fifth and seventh grade.
With no rescue in sight, the four children started to feel cold and breathless.
"During that hour, we were trapped under the debris with no idea how to get out," she said.
“We were calling for people but no one heard our pleas,” she said, sitting on a hospital bed.
All the siblings sustained serious injuries.
“I sustained injuries to my face and three fractures to my foot,” Asmahan said.
The nearly four-month war in the tiny enclave with a population of 2.3 million has killed more than 26,700 people including at least 10,000 children. That is one Palestinian child killed every 15 minutes, or about one out of every 100 children in the Gaza Strip.
More than 65,600 have been injured by the relentless and indiscriminate Israeli bombardment, including thousands of children.
Last month UN children's fund Unicef appealed for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, with spokesman James Elder describing inaction as “an approval of the killing of children”.
Asmahan’s mother, who was also buried under debris, said: “It was one of the most difficult moments of our lives.
“I passed out when the missile struck us … I woke up coughing violently … the concrete pinned me down and I couldn’t breathe.
“Dying was better than enduring these difficult moments trapped under the rubble and desperately calling for help.”
Her husband did not survive the air strike.
The UN agency working for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates 1.7 million residents of Gaza have been displaced since the war started on October 7. Many of them have been displaced a number of times, as families have been forced to move repeatedly in search of safety.
Gaza was described in November by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres as a "children’s graveyard".
More than two months on, thousands more have been killed and more than 25,000 children have lost one or both parents in the war, according to a report by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory.
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Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
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Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
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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Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Laundry
Employees: 170
Funding: about $8m
Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
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Thu Aug 30: UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
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