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At least nine people died – six children, two women, and a man – in an overnight Israeli air strike on a building in the Tal Al Sultan district of Rafah, Gaza’s civil defence said.
Palestinian Faten Al Masry was asleep in a tent for displaced people in Tal Al Sultan when a house nearby was struck. Her son was wounded in the shelling.
“We were sleeping and suddenly we woke up jolted by the attack. My son had blood covering his face. I began to shake him to see if was still alive,” she told The National.
During the chaos of the attack, Ms Al Masry lost contact with her sister. She says she does not know if she is dead or alive.
“I have no information about my sister. Her daughter was also injured,” she added.
Like millions of other Gazans who are living in tents, displaced from their homes and forced to move repeatedly, Ms Al Masry feels unsafe.
“We live in a tent, and nothing protects us. We are human beings. We want protection. We are civilians.”
At least 34,000 Gazans have been killed since Israel's war began on October 7. More than 13,000 are children, the Health Ministry said on Friday. The actual figures are believed to be higher, as thousands remain missing and under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
The Israeli military began its offensive after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people.
On Saturday, Israel also struck Al Salam area, south-east of Rafah. Mohammed Daraghma was walking when the attack took place.
“Most of the wounded are children. I tried to evacuate people,” he told The National.
“Why do they [Israel] continue to target civilians?”
Moath Al Arja lives in the neighbourhood. He managed to flee his house just before the shelling began, as his neighbours had warned him of the impending attack.
“We left our home, and the explosion occurred. It was so intense that even those who evacuated their homes were affected. Due to the strength of the explosion, there were casualties. We ran to see what was happening and found injuries,” he told The National.
Like Mr Daraghma, he began helping transport the wounded to safety, taking them to the nearby Abu Yousef Al Najjar hospital.
Israeli forces also struck Rafah from naval boats, firing machine guns towards the shore.
Residents in Rafah have been on alert for an impending ground invasion, where almost all of Gaza's 2.1 million people are seeking shelter in makeshift tents, displacement camps, UN schools and hospitals.
Meanwhile, Israel continued one of its most destructive raids on the camp of Nur Shams in Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank for the second day, which has left two people dead so far, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
At least eleven people were also wounded, several Palestinians were detained and three homes blown, the Wafa news agency said.
Seven of the people were hit by Israeli bullets, while four were beaten by Israeli soldiers, it added.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that its forces killed 10 militants in the continuing raid.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces prevent its ambulances from entering the camp to transfer injured people.
On Thursday night, Israeli forces, accompanied by bulldozers, stormed Nur Shams camp and imposed a siege.
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Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
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LIVING IN...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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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