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An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza city has killed more than 100 Palestinians and wounded dozens of others, local authorities and rescuers said.
Israeli planes hit the Al Tabaeen school in the east of Gaza city with three missiles as people were performing fajr, or dawn prayers, local authorities said.
“Rescue and civil defence teams were unable to retrieve the bodies,” the Wafa state news agency said. The death toll could rise, it added.
Most of the injured were taken to Al Ahli Al Arab Hospital and were “in a very serious condition”.
“Our crews have so far recovered more than 100 martyrs, with more than 60 still missing,” Dr Mohammed Al Mogheer, a civil defence official, told The National. “Additionally, more than 150 injured individuals have been rescued so far.”
Some of the bodies arriving at the hospital were damaged beyond recognition.
The school was sheltering more than 2,400 people, he said.
He said the Israeli strike “violates all international laws”.
The attack was carried out “using three missiles, some of which are believed to be incendiary bombs”, Dr Al Mogheer said.
“Each of the three missiles was of the type Mk-84 which weighs 2,000 pounds [907kg].”
According to a civil defence statement, first responders had to put out fires before retrieving the bodies of people killed and rescuing survivors.
The statement said there were “large quantities” of unidentified bodies and body parts at the Al Ahli hospital, adding: “Families are facing difficulty in identifying their sons.”
People were performing prayers on the ground floor of the school, while the first floor housed displaced women, Gaza's government media office said.
Israel's military disputed the death toll from the attack, saying that the accounts from Palestinian officials were “exaggerated and do not coincide with the information available in the IDF, the exact weapons used and the accuracy of the hit”.
According to the Gaza civil defence, Israel has targeted 13 shelters so far this month.
Fatah, which controls the occupied West Bank, said the attack on Saturday “represents the height of terrorism and criminality” by Israel.
“By committing these massacres, it confirms beyond any doubts its efforts to exterminate our people through a policy of cumulative killing,” it said.
The Israeli army said its air force struck a Hamas command centre “embedded in the Al Tabaeen school and located adjacent to a mosque in Daraj Tuffah, which serves as a shelter for the residents of Gaza city”.
“Numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and intelligence information,” the army said.
Israel has struck six schools in a week in Gaza city, Wafa said.
The air strike on Saturday is one of the deadliest of the Israel-Gaza war and came days before the expected resumption of talks to end the conflict.
The local health ministry said on Saturday that more than 39,700 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began on October 7, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people and seized about 240 hostages in attacks on southern Israel.
Leaders of the US, Qatar and Egypt have urged Israel and Hamas to resume Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha or Cairo next week, despite deepening mistrust following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and the appointment of hardliner Yahya Sinwar as his successor.
The call, supported by countries in the region including the UAE and Turkey, comes amid fears of a full-scale war in the Middle East, as Israel awaits Iran’s retaliation for the killing of Mr Haniyeh on its soil and Hezbollah’s avowed “punishment” for the assassination of its senior military commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut last week.
Its apparent aim is to create momentum for stopping the devastating war in the Palestinian territory, diffuse tension across the region and halt the violence before it escalates.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
New schools in Dubai
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.”
What is tokenisation?
Tokenisation refers to the issuance of a blockchain token, which represents a virtually tradable real, tangible asset. A tokenised asset is easily transferable, offers good liquidity, returns and is easily traded on the secondary markets.
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
ENGLAND SQUAD
Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Alastair Cook, Sam Curran, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes
The years Ramadan fell in May
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Scorebox
Dubai Sports City Eagles 7 Bahrain 88
Eagles
Try: Penalty
Bahrain
Tries: Gibson 2, Morete 2, Bishop 2, Bell 2, Behan, Fameitau, Sanson, Roberts, Bennett, Radley
Cons: Radley 4, Whittingham 5
