Hamas is seeking personal guarantees from US President Donald Trump that the war in Gaza will come to a complete end as the main condition for a ceasefire with Israel, a senior official said on Saturday.
“We submitted our positive response to the mediators yesterday. A new round of negotiations is expected to begin, focusing on the core issues: Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war,” the Hamas official said.
“The guarantees we are seeking must come from the Americans – President Trump personally, not anyone else,” he added.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have proposed a 60-day ceasefire during which some Israeli hostages would be released. Hamas on Friday said it had given a “positive response” to the proposal, four months after the previous agreement collapsed.
The Hamas official said the deal currently on the table would see the group releasing 10 living Israeli hostages and returning the bodies of 18 others.
Mr Trump had called it a "final proposal" and said he expected Hamas to answer within 24 hours. When told about the Hamas response by reporters aboard Air Force One he replied: "That's good. They haven't briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza."
He said there "could be a Gaza deal" next week and that he was optimistic, although the situation "changes day to day".
Points of contention
The response by Hamas appeared not to signal an immediate end to hostilities, though. The group is seeking assurances from mediators that some additional demands will be met, sources told The National on Friday.
The sources confirmed Hamas would convey its acceptance of the proposed deal along with a request for assurances from US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators about the implementation of some of its “unpublicised” clauses.
These include the return by Israel of the bodies of some of the group's leaders killed during the Gaza war, including Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohammed.
The Hamas official pointed out several remaining points of contention that still need to be resolved.
"For example, the Israelis don’t want to withdraw; they want to talk about a redeployment. That’s unacceptable. The wording needs to be clear on this point," he explained.
“Regarding aid distribution, the original text assigns the task to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but we requested it be amended to specify recognised UN agencies, such as UNRWA and others.”
Other clauses cover the laying down and storing of the group's arms and the guaranteed return to Gaza of wounded Palestinians, who will be allowed under the deal to leave the strip for treatment abroad, sources close to the negotiations said.
The clauses also include the creation of a 1km-deep safe zone on the Palestinian side of the entire Gaza-Israel border, which will be free of human habitation or any economic activity, including farming.
According to these clauses, an unnamed Arab nation will supervise the storage of Hamas's weapons, and Israel will be prevented from excluding any area of Gaza from the distribution of badly needed humanitarian resistance.
According to a two-page draft text obtained by The National on Friday, the handover of hostages and bodies will start on the first day of the truce and end on the final day. In return, Israel will release more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, including scores serving long terms.
On the 10th day of the truce, Hamas is expected to provide “comprehensive information” on the remaining hostages. In return, Israel will provide information on Palestinians it has detained since October 7, 2023, the day the Gaza war began with an attack on southern Israel communities by Hamas and its allies.
Ramped up strikes
The Hamas-led attacks prompted a devastating military assault by Israel that has so far killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza. The war has displaced the majority of the enclave's estimated two million population, with many having to flee more than once, and destroyed swathes of built-up areas.
On Saturday, hours after Hamas said it delivered its "positive" response, Israel ramped up its assault on Gaza despite the ceasefire momentum.
Medical sources and witnesses reported heavy shelling and air strikes targeting Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Gaza city in the north, and central refugee camps.
In Rafah, eight people were killed and more than 40 injured when Israeli forces opened fire near an aid distribution site linked to the US-Israel Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
To the east, in Bani Suheila near Khan Younis, four more Palestinians were killed in an air strike. Another strike on tents sheltering displaced families in Al Mawasi, west of the city, killed seven and injured at least 10.
Gaza city also came under sustained attack. Artillery fire in the Zarqa area killed one person, while an Israeli strike on Al Shafii School in Zaytoun killed five and wounded several more.
Rescue workers later recovered the bodies of two people killed in the Shujaiya neighbourhood, and strikes on residential buildings caused further casualties. In central Gaza, Israeli drones targeted homes in Al Bureij and Al Maghazi refugee camps, killing at least four and injuring others.
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India will also cut automotive tariffs to 10% under a quota from over 100% currently.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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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