PLO Official Has Made Her Mark : Gaza Strip: Intisar Wazir, exiled with Arafat for nearly three decades, helps guide the Palestinian Authority as its minister of social affairs.

In her long black dress embroidered with brightly colored flowers in traditional Gazan needlework, Intisar Wazir appeared the traditional Palestinian matron as she entertained half a dozen morning visitors in the front parlor of a Gaza City villa.

Arab sweets were passed, cold drinks were served against the intense summer heat, and the children were shushed and sent outside as Wazir inquired about the health of old friends.

But for all that, the real talk was politics--serious politics.

Wazir, 49, popularly known as Umm Jihad, or “mother of the holy war,” is the social affairs minister of the new Palestinian Authority, a top adviser to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and a key player as Palestinians shape their homeland and their future.

“Social development must be the basis for economic development, and we cannot speak of social development in Palestine, only of retreat and even collapse, during the Israeli occupation,” Wazir said. “In many respects, we are at zero. In some respects, we are below zero and worse off than when I left.”

Wazir, the first woman to reach the top ranks of the Palestine Liberation Organization, returned last week from nearly three decades in exile with Arafat and other PLO leaders, bringing with her an agenda that mixes social welfare, economic development and the transformation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank into an independent nation.

“For 30 years, we dreamed a lot about what kind of nation we would build, and now we have to do it,” Wazir said. “Our ambitions are great, our means are small, and so much--first of all peace--depends on our efforts.

“That is the burden we are carrying today, whether our portfolio is economic development or education or social welfare. We have been struggling so long, demanding this opportunity as our birthright, and now we are put to the test.”

Wazir’s agenda includes:

* Recovering the “lost generation,” the youths who grew up in the last years of Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, missing more school than they attended, fighting troops in the streets and effectively winning the chance for the PLO to negotiate with Israel.

* Moving the tens of thousands of families still living in refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank into new communities with decent housing.

* Rehabilitating tens of thousands of Palestinians jailed, many for more than a decade, during the Israeli occupation.

* Providing physical and psychological therapy for the thousands disabled during the uprising against the occupation.

* Supporting the families of those killed in the long struggle with Israel.

* Providing equal opportunities for women in a society where men remain dominant and where a fundamentalist resurgence is forcing many women back into traditional subservience.

Still without a budget as the Palestinian Authority works out its finances, Wazir plans to make a worldwide appeal for funds, equipment and expertise. “We hold the international community responsible for what befell our people,” she said, “and there should be no mistake about that.”

Wazir is accustomed to speaking her views, plainly and forcefully. She has been a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, the main constituent group within the PLO, since 1989. She has headed the PLO’s social affairs department for many years.

But she also has a popular following as the widow of Khalil Wazir, Arafat’s revered military commander and strategist who was shot to death April 16, 1988, with three bodyguards in an Israeli commando raid on his villa in a suburb of Tunis, Tunisia.

Known as Abu Jihad, or “father of the holy war,” Khalil Wazir remains a beloved figure in the Palestinian pantheon. There are as many pictures of him around Gaza six years after his death as there are of Arafat, and Palestinians sing ballads about him and his exploits.

Intisar Wazir’s influence and political acumen were felt during Arafat’s first speeches and visits in the Gaza Strip; she rarely left his side.

During Arafat’s arrival speech to about 70,000 people, Wazir was heard prompting him, as he ran through a long list of thank-yous to Arab nations, to remember the youthful protesters of the intifada , the rebellion of more than six years against the Israeli occupation.

“Don’t forget,” she reminded him several times, and Arafat, using the wording she suggested, thanked the “children of the stones, heroes of the stones.”

Later, she was cheered as much as Arafat during visits to refugee camps and local communities.

With vivid memories of standing over her husband’s bullet-riddled body, Wazir shares the ambivalence of many Palestinians about the agreement with Israel.

“What is inside me toward the Israelis cannot be easily wiped out,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “I am happy for returning and sad because my husband was not with me on the trip home.

“We were enemies, and we engaged each other in all kinds of war. Now we are in a battle, a struggle, a jihad for peace, and so we should focus on this.

“For me, this has been a long journey of 30 years, filled with difficulties and dangers, with hard work and resistance. The target has always been freedom, independence and the return to our homeland.”