JABALIYA // In shop windows and mosques throughout Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp, and on the walls of the modest but crowded home of the al Mabhouh family, hang life-size posters of the murdered Hamas commander, Mahmoud al Mabhouh.
Throughout yesterday, the al Mabhouh family played host to a steady stream of relatives and neighbours who stopped by to pay their respects, following the claim by the Palestinian militant group that one of their top leaders, the 50-year-old al Mabhouh, was assassinated in Dubai over a week ago.
Among the mourners was the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, as well as several top leaders of the Islamic militant group.
The neighbourhood where the al Mabhouh family lives in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip was without electricity yesterday, so they served Arabic coffee to guests roasted on a charcoal fire.
"We expect everything from the Israeli enemy. It is not the first time the Israelis managed to kill Palestinians outside of Palestine," said Khalil al Hayya, a senior member of the Hamas politburo, who accompanied Mr Haniya to the family home.
"We will respond to Israeli crimes at the proper time, and place, and with the means we choose."
The family claim al Mabhouh, a key founder of the Palestinian resistance group, had been the target of a number of Israeli assassination attempts over the years, and had himself expressed concern he would one day become a "martyr" at the hands of the Israelis.
"The last time I saw my son was in 2005, when I was able to travel to Syria to visit him," said al Mabhouh's father, Abdel Raouf. "But the last time I spoke with him was the week before he died, and he was healthy.
"There is no reason he would die so suddenly like that. We don't know why he was in Dubai, but we asked Hamas to look into his death."
Al Mabhouh was a founding member of Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedeen al Qassam Brigades, established 22 years ago as an Islamic resistance movement against Israeli occupation.
He fled the Gaza Strip in 1989 after kidnapping and killing two Israeli soldiers during the first Palestinian intifada that began in 1987. Israeli officials say he was also responsible for engineering a number of other deadly attacks on Israelis.
He had reportedly travelled to Dubai from Damascus - where Hamas has its political headquarters - on January 19, and his body was found in a Dubai hotel on January 20.
According to reports, the Hamas operative acted as a liaison between Hamas and its Iranian financial backers, and was responsible for securing weapons for Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The al Mabhouh family said Hamas leaders had telephoned them on the day of his death, but called again yesterday to tell them al Mabhouh family had been murdered.
"He died from electrical shocks to the brain," claimed al Mabhouh's brother, Mohammed, speaking from the same home in the refugee camp where he and his siblings were born. "They told us an electrical appliance was held up against his head until he died."
Hamas officials would not confirm his cause of death, saying in a statement the investigation was ongoing, but that it would soon publish "more details" and that "the Zionist enemy bears complete responsibility for the assassination".
Israel has killed dozens of Hamas leaders and military figures, including its leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in a helicopter gunship attack in Gaza in 2004.
In the wake of the 1989 murder of the two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sadon, the Israeli army arrested al Mabhouh's family members and demolished his home, the family said.
"They tried to kill him six times," said al Mabhouh's mother, Fatima. "They tried to kidnap and poison him in Lebanon and in Syria. As soon as I heard the news of his death, I knew it was the Israelis."
"They even arrested us," she said, "but we couldn't tell them anything about where he was or what he was doing."
The family said they attempted to travel to Syria for al Mabhouh's funeral, held yesterday in Damascus, but were turned back at Gaza's Rafah border with Egypt by Egyptian officials.
"We paid the Egyptian border guards money, and they even took our passports," Abdel Raouf said. "And then when they saw our names, they said: 'Are you the family of Mahmoud al Mabhouh?' and we said: 'Yes, is it a crime? He is a hero for our country.'"
The family also said they hoped Hamas would carry out a "strong retaliation" for al Mabhouh's death.
"We wish we could take revenge, but we don't have the means," Abdel Raouf said. "But Hamas will retaliate for us, in the name of my son, the martyr."
Hamas and Israel fought a deadly war in the Gaza Strip last winter, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
The movement has since kept both its rhetoric and its border with Israel relatively quiet, thwarting rocket attacks by other Palestinian armed groups and even declaring a so-called "rocket ceasefire" in order to allow the impoverished Palestinian territory to rebuild.
But yesterday, Hamas leaders abandoned their conciliatory tone. "There is an open battle between the Palestinians and the Israelis," said Mr al Hayya. "Our resistance is ongoing, and we will never forget our martyrs. We will end all of this with victory for the Palestinian people."
* The National
Pakistan v New Zealand Test series
Pakistan: Sarfraz (c), Hafeez, Imam, Azhar, Sohail, Shafiq, Azam, Saad, Yasir, Asif, Abbas, Hassan, Afridi, Ashraf, Hamza
New Zealand: Williamson (c), Blundell, Boult, De Grandhomme, Henry, Latham, Nicholls, Ajaz, Raval, Sodhi, Somerville, Southee, Taylor, Wagner
Umpires: Bruce Oxerford (AUS) and Ian Gould (ENG); TV umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS); Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
Tickets and schedule: Entry is free for all spectators. Gates open at 9am. Play commences at 10am
Gran Gala del Calcio 2019 winners
Best Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)
Best Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta)
Best Referee: Gianluca Rocchi
Best Goal: Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria vs Napoli)
Best Team: Atalanta
Best XI: Samir Handanovic (Inter); Aleksandar Kolarov (Roma), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli), Joao Cancelo (Juventus*); Miralem Pjanic (Juventus), Josip Ilicic (Atalanta), Nicolo Barella (Cagliari*); Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Duvan Zapata (Atalanta)
Serie B Best Young Player: Sandro Tonali (Brescia)
Best Women’s Goal: Thaisa (Milan vs Juventus)
Best Women’s Player: Manuela Giugliano (Milan)
Best Women’s XI: Laura Giuliani (Milan); Alia Guagni (Fiorentina), Sara Gama (Juventus), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus), Elisa Bartoli (Roma); Aurora Galli (Juventus), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Valentina Cernoia (Juventus); Valentina Giacinti (Milan), Ilaria Mauro (Fiorentina), Barbara Bonansea (Juventus)
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Director: Shady Ali
Cast: Boumi Fouad , Mohamed Tharout and Hisham Ismael
Rating: 3/5
If you go
The flights
Emirates (www.emirates.com) and Etihad (www.etihad.com) both fly direct to Bengaluru, with return fares from Dh 1240. From Bengaluru airport, Coorg is a five-hour drive by car.
The hotels
The Tamara (www.thetamara.com) is located inside a working coffee plantation and offers individual villas with sprawling views of the hills (tariff from Dh1,300, including taxes and breakfast).
When to go
Coorg is an all-year destination, with the peak season for travel extending from the cooler months between October and March.
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.”
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Manchester United v Liverpool
Premier League, kick off 7.30pm (UAE)
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
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