Israel has carried out air strikes on Gaza in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave at the weekend.
The Israeli army said it struck “an underground complex containing raw materials used for the manufacturing of rockets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation”.
The strikes were launched were “in response to the Saturday rocket launch from Gaza into Israel”, it said on Monday.
Air raid sirens sounded in communities in near the Gaza border after the strikes, the military said.
There were no reported casualties in Gaza or Israel following the latest round of missile fire.
Meanwhile, unrest continued in the West Bank, the scene of near-relentless violence over the past year, after the Palestinian Red Crescent said one person was killed in a predawn Israeli army raid in Nablus.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the raid.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has led to a considerable increase in violence. Since the start of the year, the conflict has claimed the lives of 47 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.
Nine Israeli civilians, including three children, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.
In a move expected to inflame tension, Israel's security cabinet said on Saturday that it would legalise nine West Bank Jewish settlements in response to fatal Palestinian attacks in occupied east Jerusalem.
It said many of the newly authorised communities had existed for years, and others for decades, but had not previously been recognised as legitimate by Israel's government.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.
About 475,000 Jewish settlers now live in the Palestinian territory, in communities considered illegal under international law.
Most of them are in settlements that Israel has unilaterally authorised but some live in communities that have yet to be approved by the government.
The security cabinet also said would announce a new round of settler housing construction in the West Bank, a step expected to draw widespread international condemnation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned against settlement expansion in a trip to the region last month.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government also announced a beefed up security presence in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem, the scene of two recent deadly attacks on civilians.
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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.”
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