Ramallah – Ma’an – Minister of Education for the caretaker government Dr Lamis Al-Alami announced the closure of Gaza City’s Al-Aqsa University in Gaza after the de facto ministry fired its president Wednesday.

In a statement for the Minister, Al-Alami said she considered what the de facto government did to be illegal and that she was closing the university according to the powers conferred to her, under the law of Higher Education No. 11.

She asked that students realize that the decision was in their best interests and in the best interests of the university.

The spokesperson of the ministry in Gaza Khalid Radi denied the rumors that the ministry hit the Principle stole from him or appointed a new president for the University. He said that the president of the University Zeidan Abu Zahri’s frequent trips outside of Gaza disrupted the educational process, so on the request of students, parents and teachers a three-person panel was selected to govern in his place. He maintained that this was done in accordance with the laws of the university.

An earlier statement from the de facto government Ministry of Education, however, said Zahri had been ousted.

Radi accused Al-Alami of not being “familiar with what was going on behind the walls of the university and its effect on paralyzing the educational process because of frequent disorders, closures and non-attendance of academics and educators.”

He also called the declaration to close the university “not worth the ink it was written with,” and was aiming to undermine the educational process in Gaza.

The Fatah Central Committee denounced the decision taken by the de facto government to dismiss Abu Zuhri from his post.