Egyptian mediators had the impression that Israel would resume bombing Gaza after the Israeli negotiators they met this week told them that Hamas was recruiting, rearming and regrouping, sources told The National on Tuesday.
An Israeli team of three negotiators flew home on Monday hours after meeting Egyptian mediators for the second time in as many days to discuss the Gaza ceasefire that had mostly held since January. A Hamas delegation that took part in the negotiations left Egypt on Sunday.
Early on Tuesday, Israel resumed attacks across Gaza, killing more than 400 Palestinians, including women and children. It said the operation was open-ended, shattering the ceasefire and raising fears that Israel-Gaza war would be fully reignited.
The sources described the meetings between Egyptian mediators and the Israeli negotiators as fraught with tension.
The Israelis made it clear that hostilities could resume if Hamas did not agree to US proposals to extend the ceasefire, free up to 11 living hostages and the remains of half of the deceased captives held by Hamas. The US proposals, drafted by White House envoy Steve Witkoff, are supported by Israel.
The Palestinian group rejected the proposals and instead insisted on entering substantive negotiations over the second phase of the ceasefire deal, which was meant to lead to a long-term ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the return of all hostages taken by Hamas in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and triggered the Gaza war.
The ceasefire was supposed to continue as long as talks over the second phase went on, according to the deal reached after more than a year of negotiations mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar.
“The Israelis had a threatening tone throughout the meetings and spoke at length about intelligence they had that showed Hamas was rearming, regrouping and energetically recruiting,” said one of the sources.
“They said Hamas's activity was mostly in central and northern Gaza and spoke of Israeli military plans already in place to resume strikes. After listening to them, the Egyptian side was almost certain that Israel will resume strikes,” said the source.
Hamas on Tuesday evening denied Israel's claims. "The occupation’s claims that the resistance had made preparations to attack its troops are baseless and false pretexts to justify its return to the war and escalation of its bloody aggression," the group said in a statement.
Moreover, the sources said, the Israeli negotiators told the Egyptian mediators they would not withdraw from a narrow strip that runs the length of Egypt's border with Gaza on the Palestinian side or have plans to allow humanitarian assistance to enter Gaza in the near future.
After hearing out the Israeli negotiators, said the sources, the Egyptian mediators – senior officials from the country's intelligence agency – said that restarting the war in Gaza was likely to trigger a chain of reactions across the region that would undermine stability.
Israel argues that the border strip - known to Palestinians as the Salah Al Din corridor but to Israelis as the Philadelphi corridor - must remain under its control to deny Hamas the use of underground tunnels to smuggle arms and other hardware. Egypt insists it has destroyed all the tunnels several years ago and that occupying the strip contravenes its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and subsequent accords.
Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue attacking Gaza until all hostages are returned. Hamas told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that deciding to “resume war” after an impasse in truce negotiations could be a “death sentence” for hostages still alive in Gaza.
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” a statement by Mr Netanyahu's office said. The Israeli Prime Minister has repeatedly said that the Gaza war will not end until Hamas's governance and military capabilities are fully dismantled and the remaining hostages freed.
Of the 250 hostages captured by Hamas and its allies in their deadly October 2023 attack on Israel, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's military response to the Hamas-led attack has killed more than 48,500 Palestinians in Gaza and injured more than twice that number, according to the enclave's health ministry. It has also displaced most of the strip's 2.3 million residents and laid large built-up areas to waste.
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PROFILE OF STARZPLAY
Date started: 2014
Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand
Number of employees: 125
Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners
The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch
St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais
Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais
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'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press
THE SPECS
Engine: Four-cylinder 2.5-litre
Transmission: Seven-speed auto
Power: 165hp
Torque: 241Nm
Price: Dh99,900 to Dh134,000
On sale: now
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Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
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.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
