Across the 140-square-mile territory, Gazans are struggling to finance their daily lives. Young people—unable to pay for weddings or homes of their own—are delaying marriage, figures show, while health officials say suicide, once virtually unheard of in Gaza, is on the rise.
Universities say students are dropping out because they cannot afford the fees. At the Islamic University in Gaza City, a third of the students did not re-enroll this semester. Graduates have little hope of finding work in their specialized fields, news outlets reported.
Unemployment in Gaza is nearly 50%, and 68% of those between the ages of 20 and"...

Every Friday for the past month, thousands of Palestinians have surged to Gaza’s border fence with Israel in a show of anger and defiance, some throwing stones and molotov cocktails, others simply wanting to be there.

“Young people have nothing to lose,” said 31-year-old Mohammed Sukkar, a few hundred yards from the boundary fence on the first day of protests last month as the crowd retreated after pops of gunfire. Sukkar is unemployed and said he is hard-pressed to feed his six children.

Across"...

As passenger numbers at Ben-Gurion International Airport continue to surge, the Israel Airports Authority will be investing a billion shekels ($281 million) to expand Terminal 3, the main international terminal at the airport.

The expansion will provide 36,000 square meters (388,000 square feet) of additional space in a four-story structure that will also house the airport’s new baggage screening system, which will automatically examine passengers’ checked luggage.

Islamic banks in the GCC should see an improvement in their financial health by the middle of the year and asset growth is on track to rise in low single-digits over the next two years in the absence of any geopolitical risks being realised, according to S&P Global Ratings.

“We also anticipate that Islamic banks’ asset quality will stabilise by midyear 2018 – with the exception of Qatari banks, where we still see some increasing risk,” said Mohamed Damak, head of Islamic finance at S&P Global Ratings.

“We"...

Global remittances increased 7 per cent to $613 billion in 2017 from 2016 on the back of strong economic growth in Europe, the Russian Federation and the United States, according to the World Bank.

The bank noted however that the cost of sending $200 was 7.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, more than double the 3 per cent target set as a sustainable development target.

“While remittances are growing, countries, institutions and development agencies must continue to chip away at high"...