Gaza ceasefire: Israel PM Netanyahu rejects Hamas's demands

Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Hamas's demands for a ceasefire and said the military would continue its offensive in Gaza until it achieved “absolute victory”.

“I believe continued military pressure is a necessary condition for releasing the hostages,” Mr Netanyahu told reporters.

“We are advancing step by step to absolute victory, and that requires absolute unity.”

The rejection comes after mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar hammered out a proposal that would have led to a three-stage truce and the phased release of hostages in return for freeing thousands of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.

Hamas responded to the initial proposal with a counter proposal in which it called for a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and a three-stage truce of 45 days each, during which indirect negotiations between the Palestinian militant group and Israel could get under way to reach a permanent cessation of hostilities.

Mr Netanyahu called Hamas's rebuttal "delusional" and vowed to keep fighting.

At a Beirut press conference following Mr Netanyahu's remarks, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the comments proved that the Israeli leader sought to continue conflict in the region.

Mr Hamdan, who said a Hamas delegation would head to Cairo for talks with Qatari and Egyptian officials, told reporters that his group “was ready for all options”.

Mr Netanyahu shut down any possibility of a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the return of hostages, instead doubling down on his country's war efforts.

He praised Israeli soldiers' efforts in the Gaza Strip, claiming they had killed 20,000 “terrorists”.

The truce rejection came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel at the end of a Middle East trip during which he had been working on securing a ceasefire.

Mr Blinken struck a slightly more optimistic tone than the Israeli Prime Minister, acknowledging that there were issues with Hamas's response but suggesting there was “space” for an eventual agreement to be reached.

“There are clearly non-starters in what Hamas put forward,” Mr Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.

“But we also see space in what came back to pursue negotiations to see if we can get to an agreement.”

The secretary, who is on his fifth trip to the Middle East and seventh to Israel since October 7, has spent months trying to reel in Israel's military campaign in Gaza, while simultaneously supporting the country's right to defend itself.

He has also reiterated the need to get more aid into Gaza and the importance of creating a “clear and credible pathway to a Palestinian state” – something the Israelis appear uninterested in pursuing.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry more than 27,700 people, the majority of them civilians, have been killed since Israel launched its military campaign in the enclave following Hamas's attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 240.

Mr Netanyahu, who has long opposed the creation of a Palestinian state, said peace would only be achieved with an Israeli victory.

“They will look good if we win and they won't if we don't win,” he told reporters.

Latest from the Israel-Gaza war – in pictures

“We need to understand that everybody's just sitting on the bleachers right now, on the sidelines, our friends, our enemies, neutral countries, everybody's watching and they want to know who's going to win: Israel or Hamas,” Mr Netanyahu said.

While there appears to be a considerable gap between what Washington is pursuing and what the Israelis are willing to do, Mr Blinken has refrained from losing his patience with Israeli leaders in public.

“There has been space between the Biden administration and Netanyahu from the beginning of this effort,” said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East analyst and current senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“But … instead of accentuating the differences, the President has chosen a different pathway, which is to somehow figure out a way to work within those differences.”

The Israeli Prime Minister, who for months has been under unrelenting pressure from the families of hostages, acknowledged the pain his decision was likely to cause.

“I do understand the pain of the families of the hostages and of the fallen soldiers,” he said.

He also took aim at the US, which recently sanctioned four Israeli settlers for involvement in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, calling the punitive measures “inappropriate”.

“It harms an entire population, a sector of the settlers who are law-abiding and their sons are a part of the war,” Mr Netanyahu said.

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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026

1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years

If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.

2. E-invoicing in the UAE

Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.

3. More tax audits

Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.

4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime

Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.

5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit

There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.

6. Further transfer pricing enforcement

Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.

7. Limited time periods for audits

Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.

8. Pillar 2 implementation

Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.

9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services

Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.

10. Substance and CbC reporting focus

Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.

Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer

TRAP

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Rating: 3/5

Need to know

Unlike other mobile wallets and payment apps, a unique feature of eWallet is that there is no need to have a bank account, credit or debit card to do digital payments.

Customers only need a valid Emirates ID and a working UAE mobile number to register for eWallet account.

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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