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A Palestinian girl seriously injured in an Israeli air strike has shared her dream of returning to a war-free Gaza after being helped to walk again in Abu Dhabi.
Lama Suhel Mady, 11, suffered a fractured pelvis when a rocket attack reduced the building where she was sheltering to rubble. The strike killed 45 people.
She has received vital medical care at Abu Dhabi's Emirates Humanitarian City – which has become a sanctuary for 1,200 Palestinian evacuees – as part of a UAE humanitarian operation
She is one of many Gazans wounded in the conflict who are being set on the road to recovery at the vast compound.
“The pain is gone,” said Lama, who was in a wheelchair when she first told her story to The National in January.
“I am almost done with my treatment and, honestly, I expected to be able to walk again as soon as I heard that I was coming to the UAE. Now I just want to run back to Gaza and for the war to be over.”
Her mother, Sabreen Musa Mady, who is staying with her in the EHC, is thankful for the lifeline her family has been given.
“The transformation is miraculous. My daughter used to be on her back, unable to move, then moved to a wheelchair, and now she’s walking and running,” said Ms Mady, 45.
More than 20 members of Ms Mady’s extended family were killed in the attack, including a daughter whose body has not been found.
Lama was injured when the building collapsed. Her older sister, who was on the second floor, sustained a dislocated hip and several fractures. She was sent to Egypt for treatment and is making a slower recovery.
'Our miracle baby'
When The National first met one-year-old Rakan Saif in January, he had stood up first time on a prosthetic leg fitted at the EHC.
He had lost a leg and his hearing after a bomb blast at the building where he was staying with his family. He had to be pulled from the rubble.
Months on, he is happily walking alongside his grandmother, Manal Abdulla, 46.
“This is our miracle baby,” Ms Abdulla said. “We are grateful and feel very lucky to be here, but our families are still in Gaza. My family is now living in a tent.
“Rakan is better, he gained around 5kg and now smiles and laughs all the time, but he is one so doesn’t understand yet the horrors and gravity of this war.
“He is the only source of happiness to the family right now. When his parents see him smile and safe and happy on the phone, they get so happy but we don’t know if we will see them again or what will happen next in Gaza.
“We are grateful that we are here and are all getting better day by day physically. There are so many who couldn’t leave.”
Rakan will be fitted with a bionic leg next week.
Harsh realities of war
“In Gaza, you either die on a hospital floor or in your house. You are dead either way. Nowhere is safe,” Laila Ibrahim, 50, told The National in January.
Today, she struggles to enjoy food in the safe surroundings of the EHC, knowing so many are starving back home. She is in the UAE with her son Malak, 13, who lost his hand after a bomb hit a supermarket in Gaza.
“I ran from a bomb that hit the supermarket I was in before realising that I was holding on to the amputated hand of my 13-year-old son,” she said.
Malek survived the blast and was fitted with a prosthetic arm at the EHC.
When The National first met him, he had just learnt how to hold a pencil with his new arm. He continues to make progress.
“We are very happy here but I am worried about the rest of my kids back in Gaza,” the mother of three said.
Her family is hiding in a school in Rafah. She spoke to her other children, aged seven and 14, on Wednesday for the first time in three weeks.
“When I spoke to them, they were crying for me to get them. They were saying: 'Mama, please come get us, we are going to die,'” she said through tears.
“We can’t sleep at night from worry. We don’t want to go back now. We know that if we go back, we will die but if only we could all be here together.”
Mohamed Elmadhoun, 18, had a prosthetic leg fitted about three months ago.
Before he arrived at the EHC in December, he had been at his grandfather’s house in Gaza when they were told early one morning that they needed to move to a safer place.
As they headed to a safer location, the air strikes hit, killing Mohamed's mother and wounding him in the leg.
At the hospital, Mohamed said doctors inserted steel rods in his leg and cauterised the wound to stop the bleeding.
They amputated the limb a few weeks later. Today, when not wearing his prosthetic, he uses crutches. He wants to enrol in a university in the UAE.
“When I first arrived, my situation was bad. I was anaemic and had many infections, and there was still shrapnel in my leg. I was in so much pain, but now I am much better,” he said.
'A gift from God'
Thirteen-year-old cancer patient Yazen Abu Hasira was something of a local celebrity in Gaza.
He loves to sing and said he had thousands of followers on social media before he lost his phone.
Yazen was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma – a type of cancer which can affect the neck and chest. The tumour was removed, but chemotherapy affected his trachea, and he needs further treatment.
“God gave him a beautiful voice,” his mother Maryam Abu Hasira said.
Yazen’s dream, the mother of five said, had been to be treated specifically in the UAE.
“Because this is where my voice can reach as many people as possible,” Yazan told The National.
“I want to sing for my homeland, Gaza. I want to sing for this war to end – for people to hear me and end this war.”
Yazen said he had spoken to Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf, a previous winner of Arab Idol, who he hopes will visit him in the UAE.
“There is nothing like the UAE and its people are known for its kindness,” Yazen said. “When I become famous I'll sing for both, the UAE and Gaza. I know that through the UAE, my voice will be heard.”
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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.”
Key recommendations
- Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
- Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
- Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
- More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
