Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Gaza ceasefire mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US were locked in delicate talks with Hamas and Israeli officials on Wednesday, looking for ways to bridge the gap in the discussions, sources told The National.
In Israel, an official was quoted by Reuters as saying he saw no sign of a breakthrough in the talks taking place in Egypt to reach a truce that would bring about freedom for hostages and prisoners held by Hamas and Israel, respectively.
The sources, however, said the main focus of the negotiations was the “slow and gradual” rate at which Hamas wanted to release the 130 hostages it has, to which Israel is objecting.
Hamas wants to stagger the release over a long period to use them as bargaining chips until its key demands – full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire and the unconditional return home of Palestinians displaced by the war – are met by Israel, the sources said.
Hamas, they said, fears that without guarantees from Qatar, the US and Egypt, Israel would resume military operations in Gaza if the hostages were freed too soon.
Israel has already declared a three-phase proposal approved by Hamas on Monday was unacceptable because some terms had been softened.
CIA director William Burns, who has been acting as chief US negotiator, left Egypt on Wednesday and was in Israel meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a possible suspension of Israel’s military operation in Gaza's southern city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, the sources said.
White House spokesman John Kirby has said Hamas’s revised proposal to pause the war suggest the remaining gaps can "absolutely be closed".
According to Hamas officials and the sources, the proposal that Hamas approved on Monday included a first phase with a six-week ceasefire, an influx of aid to Gaza, the return of 33 Israeli hostages, alive or dead, and the release by Israel of 30 detained Palestinian children and women for each released Israeli hostage.
Since the only pause in the conflict so far, a week-long ceasefire in November, Hamas has refused to free more Israeli hostages without a promise of a permanent end to the conflict, while Israel has insisted it would discuss only a temporary halt to hostilities.
The Gaza war began when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 and abducting about 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan, speaking to reporters in Beirut on Tuesday, warned if Israel's military aggression continued in Rafah, there would be no truce agreement.
Israel's military said it was conducting a limited operation in Rafah to kill fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007.
It has ordered civilians there to go to an "expanded humanitarian zone" 20km away.
In Geneva, UN humanitarian office spokesman Jens Laerke said "panic and despair" were gripping the people in Rafah.
The impact of an offensive on Rafah will have disastrous effects for more than 1 million people, Aurelie Godard, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) team leader in Gaza, said on Wednesday.
"Living conditions all over Gaza are already extremely precarious," she added. "They will just get worse for people who are being displaced again and will have to live in makeshift tents with extremely limited access to basic necessities such as water."
Israel reclosed Kerem Abu Salem crossing on its border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, after opening it briefly, allowing only one fuel lorry to enter the enclave.
Israel had closed the border point on Sunday after a Palestinian shelling attack nearby killed four soldiers.
The specs
Engine: 8.0-litre, quad-turbo 16-cylinder
Transmission: 7-speed auto
0-100kmh 2.3 seconds
0-200kmh 5.5 seconds
0-300kmh 11.6 seconds
Power: 1500hp
Torque: 1600Nm
Price: Dh13,400,000
On sale: now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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.”
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.5-litre supercharged V6
Power: 416hp at 7,000rpm
Torque: 410Nm at 3,500rpm
Transmission: 6-speed manual
Fuel consumption: 10.2 l/100km
Price: Dh375,000
On sale: now
Where can I submit a sample?
Volunteers can now submit DNA samples at a number of centres across Abu Dhabi. The programme is open to all ages.
Collection centres in Abu Dhabi include:
- Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC)
- Biogenix Labs in Masdar City
- Al Towayya in Al Ain
- NMC Royal Hospital in Khalifa City
- Bareen International Hospital
- NMC Specialty Hospital, Al Ain
- NMC Royal Medical Centre - Abu Dhabi
- NMC Royal Women’s Hospital.
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
