JERUSALEM, 8 August 2004 — Two Palestinian ministers have resigned but neither has been officially accepted, a source in the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said yesterday.

Justice Minister Nahed Al-Rais and Planning Minister Nabil Kassis had both handed in their resignations, the source said, requesting anonymity.

The two resignations have come at a bad time for the Palestinian leadership, which is struggling to contain increasing unrest and lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Rais had tendered his resignation on Wednesday over a conflict of authority with the Higher Judicial Council but it was unlikely to be accepted, the source said. Speaking to the Al-Ayyam daily, Kassis said he was resigning to become the rector of Bir Zeit University, a post he would take up in September.

Rais confirmed his resignation but would only say he had not yet received a satisfactory response from Qorei. And a senior official in Rais’ ministry also said: “The justice minister told Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei several days ago he could not stay in the post if his authority was not confirmed over the prosecutor’s office and the courts.”

According to the Palestinian basic law, the prosecutor’s office falls under the authority of the Justice Ministry but is in practice controlled by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, he added. “This authority has become indispensable for the law to be respected in the face of this chaotic situation (in the Palestinian territories),” he said.

The Palestinian Authority is facing repeated calls to implement much-needed reforms and to crack down on corruption.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops shot dead an unarmed Palestinian teenager close to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel early yesterday, claiming he had managed to cut through the border fence with the intention of carrying out an attack.

The youth, who was named as 16-year-old Ahmad Al-Qiyq, was shot dead close to the Sufa border crossing in the southeastern corner of the Gaza Strip.

In the northern West Bank town of Tulkarm, troops carried out an early-morning raid, detaining four Palestinians after surrounding several houses in the area.

Palestinian security sources said the four belonged to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

One of them was named as Abud Shreim, 28, the Tulkarm area leader of the Brigades.

Clashes broke out shortly after dawn when around 25 army jeeps and tanks pushed into the town and surrounded a number of houses, the sources said. The army confirmed the four arrests in Tulkarm, but said only one of them belonged to Al-Aqsa, while the other three were from the Hamas movement.

In Jerusalem, up to a thousand Israeli police were securing the Old City and the area around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound ahead of the Islamic Movement’s annual festival “The Children of Al-Aqsa”, army radio reported.

Meanwhile the authors of the unofficial Geneva Initiative for peace between Israel and the Palestinians said yesterday they were drafting “more detailed” proposals.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former Palestinian information minister, and Israeli former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin were speaking in the Jordanian Dead Sea resort of Shuneh after talks with some 70 delegates.

— Additional input from agencies