Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
Heavy Israeli bombardment killed at least ten people and injured dozens in southern Gaza on Tuesday after the military ordered civilians to leave eastern areas of Khan Younis and Rafah.
Hundreds of people began leaving densely populated areas in and around Khan Younis city overnight after being told to move west immediately to a designated “humanitarian zone” along Gaza's coast. Large numbers were seen leaving the eastern and southern areas and heading towards the centre and west of the city. Some slept on the streets as they had no place to go.
The injured were taken to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, medical sources told The National.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its Al Amal Hospital was overcrowded with people.
Ahmad Al Buraim, from east of Khan Younis, spent his night on the street.
“We don’t know where to go, where to take the children and women, no one cares about us” Mr Al Buraim told The National.
He fled more than seven times since the war started in early October, and says he has no place to go.
“We suddenly found rockets falling on us, there is no safety anywhere, and we are neglected with no one attempting to help us,” he added.
The war, now in its ninth month, has drained all of Mr Al Buraim's life savings and he is now struggling to feed his children, he says.
Ghalia Abu Yonis, 40, has six children. They are fleeing for the fourth time from the southern city.
“The first time I fled at the beginning of the war and came to Nasser hospital after my son was injured,” Ms Abu Yonis told The National.
“The situation is not easy. We left our homes and everything behind because we received calls from the Israeli army that told us to flee the area. We didn’t know what to do,” she said.
Ms Abu Yonis went back to Khan Younis following the withdrawal of Israeli forces and she stayed in a tent inside a school.
“I don't know where we should go now.”
They killed our souls and left us with bodies only
Fidaa Abu Tair,
displaced Gazan
The journey for Fidaa Abu Tair, 41, has also been difficult. She left her home in Khan Younis at the beginning of the war and went to a UN-backed school, then fled to Al Mawasi in Rafah, and now she is back in Khan Younis.
“What we experienced is not easy, we left our homes with nothing with us, we went through the passage that was made by the Israeli army, we walked in front of Israeli tanks and our children were so afraid,” she told The National.
“It is hard to force our children to walk near Israeli tanks,” she said.
“What else shall we go through till the end of the war? What more do we have to experience, they killed our souls and left us with bodies only.”
Her home in Khan Younis was partially destroyed. She returned there after Israeli soldiers withdrew and decided to stay there and fix it rather than stay in an overcrowded school.
“Now I am fleeing again without knowing where to go with my seven children,” she said.
The military's latest evacuation order in its nearly nine-month offensive in the Palestinian enclave was issued after a militant group fired rockets at Israeli communities near the Gaza border.
Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad which has fought Israeli forces alongside Hamas, said the attack was carried out in response to Israel's “crimes … against our Palestinian people”.
The Israeli army said “about 20 projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Khan Younis”, most of which were intercepted. No casualties were reported.
The evacuation order applied to Al Qarara, Bani Suhaila, Al Fokhari and other towns in Rafah and Khan Younis. It comes days after residents of Al Shujaiyah in northern Gaza were to told leave ahead of a military operation in the area, and nearly two months after the army issued evacuation orders for Rafah before beginning a major offensive that has displaced more than a million people – nearly half of Gaza's population.
Medical teams at the European Hospital in Al Fokhari began transferring patients to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. Although the army did not specifically order the hospital to be emptied, its location in evacuation zone raised concerns among staff.
The European Hospital is one of the few hospitals still functioning in the strip as most were heavily damaged in Israeli raids and medical and fuel supplies remain scarce.
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures and results:
Monday, UAE won by three wickets
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
Basquiat in Abu Dhabi
One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier.
It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.
“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October
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.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Profile of VoucherSkout
Date of launch: November 2016
Founder: David Tobias
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers
Sector: Technology
Size: 18 employees
Stage: Embarking on a Series A round to raise $5 million in the first quarter of 2019 with a 20 per cent stake
Investors: Seed round was self-funded with “millions of dollars”
Overview
What: The Arab Women’s Sports Tournament is a biennial multisport event exclusively for Arab women athletes.
When: From Sunday, February 2, to Wednesday, February 12.
Where: At 13 different centres across Sharjah.
Disciplines: Athletics, archery, basketball, fencing, Karate, table tennis, shooting (rifle and pistol), show jumping and volleyball.
Participating countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and UAE.
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Sugary teas and iced coffees
The tax authority is yet to release a list of the taxed products, but it appears likely that sugary iced teas and cold coffees will be hit.
For instance, the non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Cold coffee brands are likely to be hit too. Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
