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Gazans Force 2 Ministers to Retreat
Gunnies 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."
Posted by: Fred 2004-07-28
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=39245