Live updates: Follow the latest on Trump's Gulf trip
Donald Trump on Friday predicted that "good things" will come to Gaza within the next month, as his Middle East trip coincided with intensified Israeli bombing of the strip.
Mr Trump expressed a desire to "help out" Palestinians as he acknowledged that "a lot of people are starving in Gaza". Displaced people were fleeing northern Beit Lahia on Friday with belongings piled on cars, lorries and horse-drawn carts after the latest strikes killed at least 250 people.
A US and Israeli-backed aid foundation plans to begin distributing food this month, in a plan the UN and aid groups have dismissed as favouring the Israeli military. "We have to also help out the Palestinians," Mr Trump said.
"I think a lot of good things are going to happen over the next month," he said aboard Air Force One as he left the UAE to return to the White House.
He did not give further details, and hopes that his Middle East visit would bring progress towards a Gaza ceasefire have not come to fruition. Special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled with Mr Trump but the US denied reports of a direct meeting with Hamas.
Parts of Gaza have faced relentless attacks since the early hours of Friday, according to a civil defence agency. Authorities say they cannot provide a full casualty count due to the continuing bombardment.
Flight from Beit Lahia
Ahmad Abu Sharekh is one of many Gazans fleeing Beit Lahia in the north of the strip. Having already lost a leg – and his home – in the early days of the war, the 25-year-old has now had to abandon a tent in Beit Lahia due to Israeli shelling nearby.
“The warplanes are striking anything that still stands,” he told The National.
“They tell us to evacuate, and when we do, they bomb the people on the move. It’s not easy to leave everything behind and keep running from death.”
Nearby, there were reports of 30 bodies arriving at Gaza's Indonesian Hospital in the latest overnight attacks. The latest Israeli escalation has targeted both northern Gaza and Khan Younis in the south.
The territory's health ministry said at least 250 civilians have died in the recent strikes, with many more injured, as Israeli shelling hits densely populated areas, residential buildings and civil infrastructure.
“Our teams have recovered more than 50 martyrs from homes targeted today alone, 11 of them from a single family,” said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence, as he described massive devastation and a growing inability for emergency services to cope.
“The occupation is targeting anyone who moves in the north. We are overwhelmed; we simply cannot respond to all the distress calls," he said.
Trapped under rubble
Mr Bassal said some people trapped under rubble were unreachable due to the continued bombardment and the destruction of rescue equipment. He said 85 per cent of civil defence resources had been destroyed during the war.
“People are dying under the rubble because we can no longer save them. Our entire emergency response system is collapsing," he said.
“All areas of the Gaza Strip are under direct assault. What we’re witnessing is a campaign of systematic killing.”
The destruction has forced thousands to flee again, many of them for the second or third time since the war began. For many in Gaza, hope for a ceasefire is rapidly fading.
President Trump's visit to the Gulf – in pictures
Mr Trump's visit to the region had raised faint hopes of diplomatic progress. Instead, residents say it has coincided with further escalation.
“We thought his visit would bring some pressure for peace,” said Rawhi. “But instead, Israel is accelerating its plans to erase us.”
With the borders tightly sealed, nowhere is safe.
“Our chances of survival are slipping away,” he added. “We are preparing ourselves for what we feared most, that Gaza may soon cease to exist.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Joe Root (captain), Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Gary Ballance, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Ben Stokes (vice-captain), Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, Toby Roland-Jones, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson.
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
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Fireball
Moscow claimed it hit the largest military fuel storage facility in Ukraine, triggering a huge fireball at the site.
A plume of black smoke rose from a fuel storage facility in the village of Kalynivka outside Kyiv on Friday after Russia said it had destroyed the military site with Kalibr cruise missiles.
"On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine confirmed the strike, saying the village some 40 kilometres south-west of Kyiv was targeted.
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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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
