GAZA CITY, 29 July 2004 — Armed protesters forced two Palestinian ministers into an embarrassing retreat in the Gaza Strip yesterday, highlighting a collapse in law and order that almost led to the departure of Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, who was back at work.
Qorei withdrew his resignation and ended his standoff with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat that had paralyzed the Palestinian leadership.
Qorei returned to his desk in his offices in the West Bank town of Ramallah, a day after retracting his resignation which he submitted on July 17 after a spate of kidnappings had highlighted a collapse of law and order in the Palestinian territories.
Yesterday, Social Affairs Minister Intisar Al-Wazir and Education Minister Nayam Abu Al-Hummos were forced to turn back to the border between Israel and Gaza and then use back roads to reach Gaza City after being stopped in their car near the town of Beit Hanun, security sources and witnesses told AFP.
Hummos later insisted there had been no problem but several security sources confirmed angry protesters had told them they should return to the West Bank and put obstacles in the road to prevent them from driving on.
A security source added that the two ministers “were prevented from getting into Gaza City by armed people and forced to go back to Erez and they then used another road.”
Hummos however denied that there had been any problem, saying on Palestinian radio: “I went through Erez unhindered.”
Meanwhile, Qorei’s bureau chief, Hassan Abu Libdeh, said that the premier was drawing up an evaluation of the performance of all ministers before a possible reshuffle in coming months.
“There are no immediate plans to reshuffle the Cabinet,” he said.
“After we evaluate the performance of the ministers we will then draw up a plan for how we work in the future after yesterday’s agreement.”
Although some pundits have said that the agreement between Qorei and Arafat masks more fundamental differences, there was general relief among Palestinians that the immediate crisis had been averted.
The top-selling Palestinian daily Al-Quds said the agreement “has ended a crisis that worried every Palestinian citizen.”
“The green light that was granted by President Arafat yesterday for the implementation of a series of radical and important changes at the security, political and administrative levels is further proof on the importance of Palestinian national unity,” Al-Quds said.
“This development has ended a crisis that worried every Palestinian citizen.
“We hope and we feel that what happened yesterday is important since it prevented the fall into dangers that we don’t need these days and we hope to see solidarity of all Palestinians around the Palestinian leadership.”
In another development, lawyers for the settlers said yesterday the Israeli government is ready to start paying compensation as early as September to those who are to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip.
The offer to stump up advance payments for settlers who are willing to leave immediately came in a meeting between government officials and the lawyers acting for around 100 Gaza settler families.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that Arafat’s promise to hand some powers to Qorei could lead to progress on Israel’s pullout from Gaza.
“We may have a moment of opportunity before us again if in fact Prime Minister Qorei did come away ... with the necessary authority to act,” he told a joint news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Gheit was more optimistic about the likely effect of the Palestinian deal. “We trust that the agreement between Chairman Arafat and the prime minister will have its chance for implementation,” he said.
