Ahmed Ali Mohammad Qurei (also spelled Qureia or Qurie; Arabic: أحمد علي محمد قريع‎, Aḥmad ʿAlī Muḥammad Qurayʿ; 26 March 1937[1] – 22 February 2023), also known by his kunya Abu Alaa (Arabic: أبو علاء‎ Abū ʿAláʾ), was a Palestinian politician who served as the second prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority.

First appointed to the position in October 2003, he tendered his resignation on 26 January 2006, following the defeat of the Fatah party in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, and remained in office in a caretaker capacity until 19 February when he was succeeded by Ismail Haniyeh.

He previously served as speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and held a variety of significant positions within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from the 1970s on.

[2] He also founded and became director of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR) in 1993[2] to help garner money from international donors.

[17] However, Qurei could not form a new cabinet because of a dispute with Arafat which lasted for 10 weeks over the choice of an interior minister and control of the Palestinian Security Services, and he threatened to resign.

[18] While the Fatah Central Committee had agreed to the emergency cabinet with Qurei as caretaker prime minister, the Fatah-dominated PLC refused to hold a vote of confidence.

[18] Israel's non-compliance and the United States not having done enough to enforce Israeli compliance with the peace plan, along with a lack of internal support, had been reasons for Abbas' earlier resignation.

[23] Offices of the Palestinian authority in Gaza were burned down, and gunmen briefly abducted 4 French aid workers, the police chief and another official, demanding reforms.

[27] After Arafat's death in November 2004 and Mahmoud Abbas' subsequent victory in the Palestinian presidential election of 2005, Qurei was asked to continue in his post and form a new cabinet.