At least 43 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza on Friday, including 26 who had gathered to collect aid, the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency said.
Al Awda Hospital in Nuseirat refugee camp, north-east of Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, said it received 23 bodies after Israeli forces fired on people gathered to collect aid near the “Martyrs' Junction” north of the camp, in addition to dozens of wounded.
Medical sources from the Palestinian Red Crescent reported the deaths of another 11 Palestinians, and many others injured, after the Israeli military bombed a house in the Al Maaskar area, west of Deir Al Balah. The wounded were transferred to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city, they said.
"Forty-three martyrs have fallen as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip since dawn today, 26 of whom were waiting for humanitarian aid," Mohammad Al-Mughayyir, director of medical supply at the civil defence agency, told AFP.
Attacks on civilians collecting aid and continued strikes on populated areas are a daily occurrence in Gaza. On Thursday, at least 70 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, Gazan civil defence said, including 12 people who had been trying to approach an aid site operated by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The system has been widely criticised. “Palestinian lives have been so devalued. It is now the routine to shoot and kill desperate and starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on Wednesday, after more than 300 Palestinians had been killed collecting aid since the start of GHF deliveries last month.
The centres are regularly overrun by Gazans desperate for food after a nearly three-month total blockade of aid deliveries imposed by Israel in March.
Crowds start gathering near the distribution sites before dawn, despite a warning from the Israeli military that these areas are considered combat zones between 6pm and 6am.
The recently created GHF, whose four distribution centres are guarded by private security contractors and surrounded by Israeli forces, began deliveries to replace the aid delivery system operated by the UN.
Since October, 2023, the Palestinian death toll from Israel's war in Gaza has passed 55,700, the Health Ministry said on Thursday, and the number injured has risen to more than 130,100.
Israel's strikes and ground offensive followed a Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 abducted.
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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.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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