The next 48 hours are crucial to averting a major escalation between Israel and Hamas and salvaging hopes of a long-term ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt, the UN envoy to the Middle East peace process said on Wednesday as Israel threatened “great force” on Gaza in response to overnight rocket fire.
Israel carried out dozens of strikes in Gaza early on Wednesday after a rocket was fired from the enclave and landed in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, destroying the home of a family who had fled to a shelter. The strikes killed one Palestinian, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Tensions threatened to boil over as Israeli ministers pressed the country’s leader to launch a large military operation on the Hamas-ruled territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country’s military was ready to respond “with great force” after a rocket launched from Gaza landed in a southern Israeli city early Wednesday.
Gaza’s rulers Hamas said it had no involvement in the rocket fired at the city of Beersheba, which caused major damage to a family home, and said it rejected “all irresponsible attempts” to undermine Egyptian attempts to seal a long-term ceasefire between the movement and Israel.
Nikolay Mladenov, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said the rocket fire was a “dangerous escalation” and “fit a pattern of provocations that seek to bring Israel and Gaza into another deadly conflict and confrontation”.
He said “de-escalation on the ground” in the next two days is crucial to the survival of ongoing Egyptian and UN efforts to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas.
“I am afraid that there is no more time for words. Now is the time for actions. And we must see very clear actions on all sides that bring the situation to a de-escalation. Otherwise, the consequences will be terrible for everyone,” he said.
The exchange of fire once again escalated tensions that have been simmering since March after the beginning of weekly rallies against Israel’s crippling siege of the territory. Israeli snipers have killed more than 200 people, many of them unarmed protesters, at the border rallies and wounded hundreds more.
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Egypt sent a delegation to Gaza on Tuesday for the latest round of talks on a long-term ceasefire, but postponed a visit there by its intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, following Wednesday's surge in violence, Palestinian officials said.
Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system is to be deployed near the Gaza border in response to the rocket attack. Israel also closed both its border crossings with Gaza in reprisal and cut naval restrictions to three miles off the Gazan coast, further isolating the blockaded enclave where deteriorating living conditions have stoked violent protests along the border.
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman had already called for a military operation in Gaza a day before the rocket launch. He said a “serious blow” to Hamas would result in four or five years of quiet on Israel’s border with the enclave.
After Palestinians protested several days following the delivery of fuel into the territory, he called it the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and said Israel had exhausted all options for a de-escalation.
“Now is the time to make decisions,” he said. “We need to strike a serious blow at Hamas. That’s the only way to bring back quiet.”
Hamas has fought three wars with Israel since 2008 and fears of a fourth have spurred efforts by Egypt and the United Nations for a wider deal that would see Israel ease its blockade in exchange for a long-term truce with the movement.
Analysts see a further escalation brewing and believe that, while both Hamas and Israel do not want war, the room for compromise is becoming smaller with every day that passes and every exchange that takes place.
"Israeli threats of a military operation against Gaza if the Great March of Return doesn't stop are real threats,” says Waled Almoudala, a political science lecturer at the Islamic University of Gaza.
“Some parties want to ruin the Egyptian efforts of achieving a truce between Gaza and Israel by launching the rockets. Gaza is an undisciplined playground, so to launch a rocket is not something difficult to do,” he continued.
The next week will be crucial to preventing an outbreak of conflict in the territory, with another Friday protest planned in Gaza, the UN and Egypt in intense negotiations to ease tensions and Israeli ministers ratcheting up their war talk.
“The situation is serious. It won’t take too much to drag the sides back into a circle of escalation that leads to war. Last night’s exchange of fire is a good example,” says Hugh Lovatt, Middle East and North Africa policy fellow at the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR).
“We will have a good indication on Friday where things are heading – based on whether Hamas continues to escalate protests, and if there is an indication from Israel that it will allow a resumption of fuel deliveries,” he said. “Otherwise, all bets are off.”
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
Emergency
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Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Raha%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Kuwait%2FSaudi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Tech%20Logistics%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2414%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Soor%20Capital%2C%20eWTP%20Arabia%20Capital%2C%20Aujan%20Enterprises%2C%20Nox%20Management%2C%20Cedar%20Mundi%20Ventures%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20166%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Paatal Lok season two
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