GAZA CITY // A Gazan bomb-disposal expert featured in The National for his work saving Palestinian lives from Israel’s unexploded missiles was killed on Wednesday when a piece of ordnance that his team was working on detonated.
The explosion in northern Gaza also killed an Italian journalist, a Palestinian translator and two other members of the bomb-disposal squad.
Last week, The National interviewed Hazem Abu Murad, the chief of the police team's field operations, as he and his colleagues dealt with unexploded Israeli artillery shells and bombs left over from its military offensive on Gaza that began on July 8.
Mr Abu Murad, 39, a father of five, spoke about the perils of his job, which he had been doing for 15 years.
“This is dangerous work. It’s life and death. One small tweak in the wrong direction, even a millimetre, and you’re dead,” Mr Abu Murad said on August 7.
He had described the main danger during his work came from incoming Israeli fire while his team, part of Gaza’s Hamas-run police, responded to reports of unexploded munitions in homes, hospitals and fields.
“Of course I’m not afraid,” he said at the time, as he oversaw the disposal of a massive bomb that lay in an field in central Gaza. It was droppd from an F-16 warplane.
His squad lacked essential equipment for bomb disposal, such as flak jackets, which they said was a consequence of the siege that Israel placed on Gaza after Hamas took control in 2007.
They used to receive training from European advisers before the takeover by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
Mr Abu Murad had estimated there to be about 2,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance left over from Israel’s relentless bombardment. Some of the munitions his team dismantled were Hamas rockets that failed to reach Israel.
The two other members of his team killed were Bilal Muhammad Al Sultan, 27 and Taysir Ali Al Hum, 40, the Palestinian news agency Maan said.
The blast also killed Simone Camilli, an Italian video journalist who had worked with the Associated Press since 2005 and reported regularly from Gaza.
He was the first foreign journalist to die in the conflict that has killed nearly 2,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians. All but three of the 67 Israelis killed in the fighting that began on July 8 were soldiers.
“He was my brother. I have known him for almost 10 years. He was so happy to be with me working in Gaza,” Najib Jobain, chief producer in Gaza for the Associated Press, said of Mr Camilli.
Ali Shehda Abu Afash, who was working as a translator for Mr Camilli, was also killed in the blast next to the Neda housing complex near Beit Lahiya.
The area came under heavy Israeli bombardments, with buildings struck so hard and so many times that they looked like they were formed by melted concrete.
A 36-year-old resident of the Palestinian territory, Mr Abu Afash left behind a wife and two children aged five and six.
The victims of the blast were taken to the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza. Associated Press photographer Hatem Moussa was one of four people badly injured.
Moussa told a colleague that they were filming the scene when an initial explosion went off. He said he was hit by shrapnel and began to run away when there was a second explosion. The blast knocked him unconscious and he woke up in a hospital.
The explosion came as Egyptian mediators struggled to extend a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
The Palestinian delegations demand that Israel lift the siege, which has been tightened over the last year by Egyptian authorities. Israeli officials have been reluctant to meet that demand, but both sides have expressed tentative willingness to allow forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, to play a role in Gaza’s reconstruction.
* Additional reporting by Associated Press
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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.”
