GAZA, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, on Thursday annulled a decision of closing the offices of the Palestinian national human rights watchdog shortly after the order was handed out to the organization.

    Jameel Sarhan, program director at the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), said that employees from Hamas' interior ministry came to the group's office in Gaza and asked them to shut it down but the ministry has later retreated the decision.

    An hour later, Sarhan says that the ministry's general inspector called him and informed him that what happened was "misunderstanding."

    But a spokesman for the ICHR in Ramallah said the group wanted to clarify from the deposed Hamas government since the officers, who ordered the ICHR employees to leave, showed a letter the cabinet sent to the interior minister on Oct. 13 asking him to stop the ICHR activities in the Gaza Strip.

    Late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat decreed the establishment of the ICHR in 1993 to be the Palestinian National Authority's (PNA) human rights watchdog.

    The ICHR's sharp criticism of Hamas' abuses in Gaza has created a tense atmosphere between the two sides. Hamas says the organization does not report much about abuses committed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces in the West Bank.

Special Report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts