Israel will reopen Gaza’s main commercial crossing on Tuesday if a tense truce continues to hold, the government said on Sunday.
The announcement came after the UN warned that at least one Gaza hospital had closed because of fuel shortages after Israel tightened imports into the enclave.
Israel closed the Kerem Shalom crossing on July 9 in a bid to stop Palestinians flying kites and balloons that have started fires across the border in southern Israeli territory. On July 17, it further tightened the restrictions to also prevent fuel deliveries while reducing the fishing zone Israel enforces off Gaza to three nautical miles from six.
But the UN warned on Sunday that supplies of emergency fuel were fast running out and that donor funding could be used up by August.
UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Palestine Jamie McGoldrick said at least one hospital has been forced to shut down since the border crossing closure.
“Services are being dramatically reduced at others,” Mr McGoldrick said in a statement. “Given ongoing blackouts of about 20 hours a day, if fuel does not come in immediately, people’s lives will be at stake with the most vulnerable patients, like cardiac patients, those on dialysis and newborns in intensive care, at highest risk.”
Tensions have risen on the border in recent days after a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier, leading to an intense Israeli military barrage on the enclave. The bombardment led to a truce between Gaza’s rulers Hamas and Israel on Saturday.
Palestinians have continued to fly kites and balloons attached with flaming rags across the border, starting fires that have cost Israel millions of dollars. Israeli ministers have called for a harsh response to the devices that the military has largely been unable to intercept.
But the young Palestinian men launching the low-cost devices said they were doing so to protest against Israel’s crippling siege of the enclave since 2007. The Israeli military has killed at least 149 Palestinians who have taken part in weekly protests since March 30, and its snipers have wounded thousands, many who have suffered life-changing injuries.
________________
Read more
Israel seizes boat from Gaza seeking to break blockade
Gaza truce mostly holds after heavy Israel strikes
________________
The closure of the border crossing has brought an enclave already reeling from the siege even closer to the brink of disaster.
"Al Quds hospital which provides life-saving interventions for 150,000 people a year will be forced to shut down in the coming days because of a lack of fuel," Chris Gunness, spokesman of UNRWA, the UN body that helps Palestinian refugees, told The National by phone.
He said that another four hospitals might close down because they were likely to run out of fuel in the next few days.
“It looks unprecedentedly bad,” he said. “Over a million people are going to be directly affected by the closure of hospitals.”
The UN has condemned the rockets fired from Gaza as well as the kites and balloons flown across the border into Israel, but it called on the country to reopen the border crossing immediately and allow fuel imports to prevent the collapse of vital medical facilities.
“Israel says there is an existential threat. Obviously [the kites] must stop. But let’s be realistic about who faces an existential threat if you look at the figures,” Mr Gunness said, citing figures of more than 4,000 Gazans taken to hospital because of live fire.
“Israel needs to lift these restrictions on fuel and the long-term blockade needs to end,” he said. “It’s collective punishment and a violation of international law.”
Israel said it would only open the crossing if calm was maintained along the border.
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that “if today and tomorrow the situation continues as it was yesterday, then on Tuesday we will allow Kerem Shalom [goods crossing] to return to normal activity and the fishing zones will return to the same distances as before”.
Mr Lieberman, speaking at the crossing, stressed that calm also meant an end to months of kites and balloons carrying firebombs over the border fence from the Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas to burn Israeli farmland.
Israeli authorities say hundreds of fires have been started by the firebombs since April.
Mr Lieberman said: “The key is quiet, calm, zero firebombs, zero friction on the fence and zero rockets or, God forbid, shooting."
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
NEW%20UTILITY%20POLICY%3A%20WHAT%20DOES%20IT%20REGULATE%3F
%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Agreements%20on%20energy%20and%20water%20supply%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Applied%20service%20fees%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Customer%20data%20and%20information%20privacy%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Prohibition%20of%20service%20disconnections%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Customer%20complaint%20process%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Management%20of%20debts%20and%20customers%20in%20default%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Services%20provided%20to%20people%20of%20determination%20and%20home%20care%20customers%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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
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.”
