Israel says Mohammed Sinwar's body found in Gaza tunnel

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Israel's military said on Sunday that it had identified the body of former Hamas military chief Mohammed Sinwar, who was killed in an air strike on a hospital in Gaza last month.

An Israeli army statement said the body was found in an "underground tunnel route" beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis. It said documents including Mr Sinwar's driving licence were found at the site.

Israel said he was hiding in an underground "command and control centre" at the site, an explanation it often gives for its air strikes in Gaza. It released footage of what it said was the tunnel route beneath the European Hospital.

Israel said it had discovered tunnels underneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Reuters

The army said other militants were killed in the strike on May 13, and some were still being identified. One of them was said to be Mohammad Sabaneh, described by Israel as commander of a Hamas brigade in Rafah.

"During searches in the underground tunnel route, several items belonging to Sinwar and Sabaneh were located, along with additional intelligence findings that were transferred for further investigation," the army statement said. It said Israel had gathered "additional intelligence findings" that were still being examined.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on May 21 that the army had "probably killed" Mohammed Sinwar. His brother Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israel last year, was the Hamas leader believed to have masterminded the October 7 attack on Israel in 2023.

Mohammed Sinwar was believed to have succeeded his brother Yahya Sinwar as head of Hamas in Gaza. Reuters

Rumours of Mohammed Sinwar's death had abounded after the hospital strike. The attack was reported to have killed 34 people, with Gaza's civil defence agency describing it as "extremely intense" and having left "catastrophic effects across the area".

Born in Khan Younis in 1975, Mohammed Sinwar joined Hamas as a teenager and was arrested in 1991 for suspected involvement in terrorism. He was also jailed by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah during the 1990s.

After the killing of Hamas’s top military commander, Mohammad Deif, in July last year, he took charge of the group’s armed wing. And after his older brother's death, he became the de facto leader of Hamas in Gaza.

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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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