Israel endured a day of setbacks in its Middle East wars on Thursday with four troops killed in Gaza, two Israeli military personnel stabbed to death near Jordan and a city hit by a Houthi drone.
As Israeli troops intensified their assault on Gaza city, killing at least two dozen more Palestinians, Hamas warned it would “not care about the lives” of Israeli hostages. “This criminal operation means that you will not get a single prisoner, neither dead nor alive,” said the group's armed wing.
The Israeli army said four troops were killed in what reports said was a roadside bomb attack in the south of Gaza. One cadet was injured.
Official Palestinian media meanwhile said 20 victims were brought to Gaza city's Al Shifa hospital after being killed in Israeli attacks. It reported four deaths in Al Bureij refugee camp when Israeli aircraft bombed a house.
Internet and phone lines were down across Gaza, in a sign that Israel's ground operations could escalate further. Israel this week began its main push to capture Gaza city after weeks of destructive bombing, saying on Thursday that troops were “expanding their operations” in the area.
As tensions flare, two Israelis were killed in an attack at an Israeli-run border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan on Thursday, officials said. Israel said the attacker was a Jordanian aid lorry driver.
Israel's army called the Allenby Bridge incident a terrorist attack and said it had advised the government to block aid at the crossing in response. Jordan's Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, which it described as “harming the interests of the kingdom” and its ability to deliver aid.
Israel's police meanwhile reported a drone crash in the southern city of Eilat, after the army reported a “hostile aircraft infiltration”, apparently from Yemen. The country's Houthi rebels regularly fire missiles at Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, but impacts are relatively rare.
Israel's advance in pursuit of Hamas operatives comes days before the UN General Assembly meets in New York, with France and Saudi Arabia leading a push to recognise Palestinian statehood – an idea the US and Israel reject.
The UN Security Council was on Thursday considering a new resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, drawn up after the UN declared a famine. The US habitually vetoes such motions but other members have been increasingly vocal in their frustration over the suffering in Gaza.
Israel's attacks on neighbouring countries have triggered concern around the region. Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called for “maximum” pressure on Israel to stop its attacks after it announced new strikes on the country's south.
“Lebanon calls on the international community, and particularly the countries that sponsored the ceasefire agreement, to exert maximum pressure on Israel to immediately halt its attacks,” Mr Salam said during a cabinet meeting.
Wafa reported more violence in Gaza on Thursday morning, saying Israeli troops destroyed residential buildings south and north of Gaza city, forcing people to flee. Israel is believed to have detonated booby-trapped robots to destroy Gaza city neighbourhoods.
The army operation has also disrupted internet services, Wafa quoted Gaza's telecoms authority as saying.
The World Health Organisation warned that hospitals in northern Gaza were on the “brink of collapse” as the escalating violence prevented it from delivering life-saving supplies. WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus demanded an “end to these inhumane conditions” in a post on X.
Israel says Gaza city is a major Hamas stronghold housing between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters, with the military operation aiming to neutralise the group's central command.
But it has widened its pursuit of the group far beyond Gaza, last week bombing a building in the Qatari capital where Hamas leaders were meeting, killing six.
For the first time since the Doha strike, one of the Hamas figures attacked appeared in public on Wednesday, taking part in a live interview broadcast by Qatari channel Al Jazeera.
Ghazi Hamad, a top official in Hamas, said the attack occurred “less than an hour after we began studying the proposal” for a ceasefire.
“The rockets came down consecutively, without a pause, around 12 missiles in less than a minute,” he added.
International pressure on Israel over its conduct in the Gaza war has been growing. On Wednesday a UN investigator who this week accused Israel of committing genocide said she sees parallels with the butchery in Rwanda in the 1990s.
Navi Pillay, a South African former judge who headed the international tribunal for the Rwanda genocide, said she hopes one day Israeli leaders will be put behind bars.
“I consider it not impossible that there will be arrests and trials” in the future, she told news agency AFP.
Her Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which does not officially speak on behalf of the UN, issued a bombshell report on Tuesday concluding that “genocide is occurring in Gaza”, an accusation Israel vehemently denies.
It also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials of incitement to the cause.
Israel categorically rejected the findings and slammed the report as “distorted and false”.
European countries have been increasingly critical of Israel's actions and a number have said they plan to recognise a Palestinian state this month, defying Israeli opposition.
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The biog
Hometown: Birchgrove, Sydney Australia
Age: 59
Favourite TV series: Outlander Netflix series
Favourite place in the UAE: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque / desert / Louvre Abu Dhabi
Favourite book: Father of our Nation: Collected Quotes of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Thing you will miss most about the UAE: My friends and family, Formula 1, having Friday's off, desert adventures, and Arabic culture and people
What is safeguarding?
“Safeguarding, not just in sport, but in all walks of life, is making sure that policies are put in place that make sure your child is safe; when they attend a football club, a tennis club, that there are welfare officers at clubs who are qualified to a standard to make sure your child is safe in that environment,” Derek Bell explains.
ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Jack Butland, Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope
Defenders: John Stones, Harry Maguire, Phil Jones, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Gary Cahill, Ashley Young, Danny Rose, Trent Alexander-Arnold
Midfielders: Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson, Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard, Raheem Sterling, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fabian Delph
Forwards: Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Marcus Rashford, Danny Welbeck
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index in full
1 Jeff Bezos $140 billion
2 Bill Gates $98.3 billion
3 Bernard Arnault $83.1 billion
4 Warren Buffett $83 billion
5 Amancio Ortega $67.9 billion
6 Mark Zuckerberg $67.3 billion
7 Larry Page $56.8 billion
8 Larry Ellison $56.1 billion
9 Sergey Brin $55.2 billion
10 Carlos Slim $55.2 billion
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
UFC%20FIGHT%20NIGHT%3A%20SAUDI%20ARABIA%20RESULTS
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JOKE'S%20ON%20YOU
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Favourite things
Luxury: Enjoys window shopping for high-end bags and jewellery
Discount: She works in luxury retail, but is careful about spending, waits for sales, festivals and only buys on discount
University: The only person in her family to go to college, Jiang secured a bachelor’s degree in business management in China
Masters: Studying part-time for a master’s degree in international business marketing in Dubai
Vacation: Heads back home to see family in China
Community work: Member of the Chinese Business Women’s Association of the UAE to encourage other women entrepreneurs
The Bio
Favourite holiday destination: Either Kazakhstan or Montenegro. I’ve been involved in events in both countries and they are just stunning.
Favourite book: I am a huge of Robin Cook’s medical thrillers, which I suppose is quite apt right now. My mother introduced me to them back home in New Zealand.
Favourite film or television programme: Forrest Gump is my favourite film, that’s never been up for debate. I love watching repeats of Mash as well.
Inspiration: My late father moulded me into the man I am today. I would also say disappointment and sadness are great motivators. There are times when events have brought me to my knees but it has also made me determined not to let them get the better of me.
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.”
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The specs: 2018 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross
Price, base / as tested: Dh101,140 / Dh113,800
Engine: Turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder
Power: 148hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 250Nm @ 2,000rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed CVT
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Company profile
Date started: December 24, 2018
Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer
Based: Dubai Media City
Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)
Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech
Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year
Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
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