TEL AVIV // As the first anniversary of the start of Israel's 22-day attacks last year against Hamas in the Gaza Strip takes place today, both sides are already threatening another round of fighting.
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic group that rules the impoverished enclave, stated this weekend it would not hesitate to engage in more combat with Israel. Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, was quoted by news agencies as saying: "If any battle is imposed on us, we are ready with all our manpower and equipment to confront any Zionist war, any crime and any attack regardless of scale."
On the Israeli side, Yoav Galant, head of the military's southern command, responsible for the region bordering Gaza, warned earlier this month of a looming confrontation. Speaking at a conference at Israel's Ben-Gurion University, he said the current dramatic drop in rocket fire by Gaza militants on the country's southern communities was a "temporary pause" and added: "Even though it has been quiet, we see the clouds on the horizon and they are ominous. We have to be prepared for the possibility of war."
Continued violence between Israel and the Palestinians may also escalate in the occupied West Bank. Yesterday, the Israeli army killed three militants in the West Bank city of Nablus and another three men in northern Gaza, prompting an aide to Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the western-backed Palestinian Authority, to accuse Israel of "trying to explode the situation".
For the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza, which has not yet been rehabilitated from last year's onslaught, the bloodiest for years in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, further hostilities are bound to be devastating.
Israel had launched its offensive, which had involved hundreds of air strikes, mortar and artillery fire and the incursion of several thousand Israeli soldiers into the area, in a bid to quell the rocket fire by Gaza militants onto its territory.
But the attacks left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead, including hundreds of civilians, while 13 Israelis - most of them soldiers - were also killed. The military campaign completely destroyed some 3,500 homes in Gaza as well as factories, government buildings, roads and bridges, and had damaged power lines and water and sanitation networks.
A year later, much of Gaza remains in ruins amid Israel's continued blockade on the territory, which includes a near total ban on reconstruction materials such as cement, glass and iron. Israel controls all of Gaza's border crossings except for Rafah, which is managed by Egypt, which typically co-ordinates its opening with Israel.
Some 40,000 Gazans still have no electricity and power outages take place eight hours a day, four days a week for most areas of the enclave, according to Gisha, an Israeli human rights group that advocates for Palestinian rights. Furthermore, 10,000 people still have no access to running water.
The impoverished territory's economy has worsened. According to Gisha, 97 per cent of factories remain shut, the unemployment rate has risen to 42 per cent and 80 per cent of the region's inhabitants are dependent on food aid.
Late last week, Richard Falk, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, condemned a "tragic failure" by Europe and the US to end Israel's blockade of Gaza and urged them to consider threatening Israel with economic sanctions should the siege not be lifted.
While Israel's blockade continues to impede Gaza's recuperation, the decrease of rocket fire on its own territory has spurred an economic revival in the towns that had been hardest hit by the rocket barrages. Indeed, some 240 rockets and mortar shells have been fired on Israel since it ended the attacks, about 90 per cent less than during the offensive.
In Sderot, a southern Israeli community of 19,000 people, which had appeared like a ghost town during last year's onslaught as hundreds of residents escaped the rockets, is a prime example. In recent months, real estate prices have climbed by about 40 per cent, while demand for apartment rentals has jumped and the construction of a new shopping centre is underway.
But for Israel, the relative calm on its border with Gaza has come hand in hand with international condemnation of the human toll from its attacks.
The killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians had prompted a UN investigative team to accuse Israel of violating international laws on war and deliberately targeting civilians. Israel has rejected the damning report of the UN mission, led by respected South African judge Richard Goldstone, as biased and has engaged in diplomatic efforts to hinder it from reaching the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which could result in the possible prosecution of senior Israeli military and political figures.
Like their government, many Israelis remain convinced that the onslaught was justified, and the country's mainstream media have since barely reported on the damage it has wrought on Gazans.
Gideon Levy, a prominent left-wing journalist for Haaretz, a liberal Israeli newspaper, lamented the lack of coverage on Gaza, which he partly blamed on the government's banning of Israeli journalists from entering the enclave. But he also suggested that fellow reporters have opted to be apathetic to the effects of Israel's actions on Gazans, and added: "For more than three years, there has not been an Israeli journalist in Gaza, but there is no sound of protest from the media - Gaza is closed to reporters, but they do not care."
@Email:foreign.desk@thenational.ae
Cultural fiesta
What: The Al Burda Festival
When: November 14 (from 10am)
Where: Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi
The Al Burda Festival is a celebration of Islamic art and culture, featuring talks, performances and exhibitions. Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, this one-day event opens with a session on the future of Islamic art. With this in mind, it is followed by a number of workshops and “masterclass” sessions in everything from calligraphy and typography to geometry and the origins of Islamic design. There will also be discussions on subjects including ‘Who is the Audience for Islamic Art?’ and ‘New Markets for Islamic Design.’ A live performance from Kuwaiti guitarist Yousif Yaseen should be one of the highlights of the day.
Company profile
Name: Tharb
Started: December 2016
Founder: Eisa Alsubousi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Luxury leather goods
Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Biography
Favourite book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Holiday choice: Anything Disney-related
Proudest achievement: Receiving a presidential award for foreign services.
Family: Wife and three children.
Like motto: You always get what you ask for, the universe listens.
How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
THE BIO:
Favourite holiday destination: Thailand. I go every year and I’m obsessed with the fitness camps there.
Favourite book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s an amazing story about barefoot running.
Favourite film: A League of their Own. I used to love watching it in my granny’s house when I was seven.
Personal motto: Believe it and you can achieve it.
Hot%20Seat
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20James%20Cullen%20Bressack%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3EStars%3A%20Mel%20Gibson%2C%20Kevin%20Dillon%2C%20Shannen%20Doherty%2C%20Sam%20Asghari%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%201%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
Crazy Rich Asians
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeon, Gemma Chan
Four stars
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Rashford 36')
Liverpool 1 (Lallana 84')
Man of the match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)