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Hamas has softened its stance on some of its core conditions for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, following an intensified push by mediators to reach a deal, sources close to the negotiations told The National on Saturday.
The sources said the latest proposals to pause the war provide for a 60-day truce during which Hamas will stagger the release of the remaining Israeli and other hostages it has held since October 2023, when its fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, kidnapping another 250 and triggering the 15-month-old Gaza war.
US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Israel on Saturday to brief Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the state of negotiations.
Mr Witkoff flew to Israel a day after meeting Qatar's chief negotiator, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, to discuss "the latest developments in the region, especially the efforts aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip", the Qatari Foreign Ministry said.
He was scheduled to meet Mr Netanyahu later on Saturday.
The Israeli Prime Minister's office on Saturday confirmed that Mr Netanyahu had ordered the head of Mossad and the Shin Bet intelligence agencies, as well as political adviser Ofir Falk, to go to Doha to help advance a possible deal for hostages.
US President Joe Biden, who leaves office later this month, said on Thursday that there had been "real progress" in the Gaza talks, while Mr Trump has repeatedly warned Hamas that there will be "hell to pay" if it does not free the remaining captives before his January 20 inauguration.
Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza are believed to be holding about 100 hostages. The Israeli military says about 40 of them have died in captivity, but the sources say fewer than that have actually perished.
They said Hamas will free three hostages every week in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. It wants Israeli forces to redeploy outside urban centres during the release.
However, Hamas is refusing to meet Israel's demand for a list of all the hostages before the exchange begins. Israel also remains opposed to the release of several high-profile Palestinians sentenced to long terms on security-related charges, according to the sources.
Hamas has already agreed to an Israeli demand that the prisoners and their families leave the Palestinian territories and live in exile abroad upon their release.
The group is also now willing to accept verbal guarantees from the mediators – the United States, Qatar and Egypt – as well as Turkey that Israel will continue negotiations for a permanent ceasefire after the expiry of the proposed truce. It had previously demanded written guarantees.
Hamas has also agreed to put off resolving remaining differences with Israel to the second phase of the deal that commences at the expiry of the 60-day truce.
One of these is Israel's insistence on maintaining buffer zones in the eastern and northern fringes of Gaza, something that Hamas is said by the sources to be ready to tolerate for a time until resolved at a later date.
The latest push for a deal to end the war comes at a time when more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than twice that number injured, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry. The majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people have also been displaced by the war, which has left large swathes of built-up areas reduced to rubble.
The only truce in the Gaza war was in late November 2023, when the guns were silenced for a week. During that truce, Hamas released about 100 hostages in exchange for several hundred Palestinian prisoners.
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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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