Al-Azhar University – Gaza, often abbreviated AUG, is a Palestinian, public, non-profit, and independent higher education institution. During the first intifada, Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat issued a decree in September 1991 to establish a Palestinian national university. AUG opened on 18 October 1991 in a two-story building with 725 students enrolled in two faculties; the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Sharia and Law.