Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Two private US security firms will screen displaced Palestinians and their vehicles when they return home to northern Gaza from the south under the January 15 ceasefire agreement, sources briefed on the operation told The National on Thursday. They will be joined by a private security company from Egypt.
The sources identified the two US companies as Safe Reach Solutions, a strategic planning and logistics company, and UG Solutions, which operates armed guards around the world. The owners of the company from Egypt are linked to that nation's intelligence agency, said the sources, without elaborating.
Personnel from the Egyptian company and UG Solutions will be deployed at a major checkpoint to be set up at the Netzarim corridor created by Israel during the war which runs from east to west, cutting the coastal enclave in half. The three companies' contracts run for the duration of the six-week truce brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US, said the sources.
The chief task given to the companies is to ensure the orderly movement of displaced Palestinians using vehicles to return home in northern Gaza, according to the sources. They will also make sure that no weapons or explosives are smuggled to the north.
Contracting the three companies is designed to circumvent Hamas's opposition to Israel doing the security screening for the returnees as it had demanded during the negotiations that produced the ceasefire and hostages release deal, said the sources. Other companies might if needed join the three already contracted, they added.
The return home of Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza is expected to start on Saturday, said the sources. They are required to take the Salah Al Din road to the Netzarim checkpoint, they added.
The search there will cover all vehicles as well as rickshaws and donkey or horse-drawn carts. Only traffic heading north from the south will be permitted, not the other way around, said the sources.
Four female Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hamas since October 2023 are scheduled to be released on Saturday. In return, Israel will free more than 200 Palestinian prisoners serving life or long-term jail terms in Israel.
Most of the freed Palestinians will not be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank or Gaza under the terms of the deal. Instead, they will move into exile abroad with their families for three to five years, said the sources. Those who are to live in exile will transit in Egypt en route to Turkey or Algeria, said the sources.
Besides the truce and the release of 33 hostages in the first phase of the January 15 deal, it provides for large amounts of humanitarian assistance – 600 lorries a day – to be sent to Gaza, including fuel. It also provides for the supply of 60,000 caravans and 200,000 tents to house those who have lost their homes in the war.
The Gaza ceasefire, which took effect on Sunday, followed 15 months of relentless Israeli bombardment that killed more than 47,000 Palestinians and injured more than twice that number, according to the Gaza government. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced and about 80 per cent of built-up areas razed to the ground.
The ceasefire is the first respite from fighting that Gaza has had since a week-long truce expired on December 1, 2023. It came after more than a year of on-off negotiations.
The war was sparked by an attack on southern Israel by Hamas and its allies whose fighters killed 1,200 and took another 250 hostage. Of the more than 90 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza, three were freed earlier this week as part of the deal, in exchange for 90 Palestinians who had been held in Israeli prisons.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Small%20Things%20Like%20These
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Tim%20Mielants%3Cbr%3ECast%3A%20Cillian%20Murphy%2C%20Emily%20Watson%2C%20Eileen%20Walsh%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Types of policy
Term life insurance: this is the cheapest and most-popular form of life cover. You pay a regular monthly premium for a pre-agreed period, typically anything between five and 25 years, or possibly longer. If you die within that time, the policy will pay a cash lump sum, which is typically tax-free even outside the UAE. If you die after the policy ends, you do not get anything in return. There is no cash-in value at any time. Once you stop paying premiums, cover stops.
Whole-of-life insurance: as its name suggests, this type of life cover is designed to run for the rest of your life. You pay regular monthly premiums and in return, get a guaranteed cash lump sum whenever you die. As a result, premiums are typically much higher than one term life insurance, although they do not usually increase with age. In some cases, you have to keep up premiums for as long as you live, although there may be a cut-off period, say, at age 80 but it can go as high as 95. There are penalties if you don’t last the course and you may get a lot less than you paid in.
Critical illness cover: this pays a cash lump sum if you suffer from a serious illness such as cancer, heart disease or stroke. Some policies cover as many as 50 different illnesses, although cancer triggers by far the most claims. The payout is designed to cover major financial responsibilities such as a mortgage or children’s education fees if you fall ill and are unable to work. It is cost effective to combine it with life insurance, with the policy paying out once if you either die or suffer a serious illness.
Income protection: this pays a replacement income if you fall ill and are unable to continue working. On the best policies, this will continue either until you recover, or reach retirement age. Unlike critical illness cover, policies will typically pay out for stress and musculoskeletal problems such as back trouble.
