Court says army must hand over Jenin dead

Israel’s army must hand over to the Palestinians bodies of Palestinians killed in fierce fighting in a northern West Bank refugee camp, according to a court settlement today stopping Israeli plans to bury bodies in unmarked northern graves.

Under the Israeli Supreme Court decision, Red Cross representatives would accompany Israeli military teams searching for bodies in the debris of the Jenin refugee camp.

With the agreement of the local army commander, representatives of the Palestinian Red Crescent also could participate, the decision said.

Mohamed Barakeh, an Arab Israeli lawmaker who petitioned the court, described the decision as ‘‘positive’’. The Red Cross and Red Crescent have agreed to participate, he said.

Col Dan Reisner, an international law adviser in the army’s advocate-general’s office, indicated Palestinians of the Red Crescent may not be able to participate.

Army search teams, he said, were moving in armoured personnel carriers and Reisner said he did not expect local commanders would allow Palestinians into them.

The army announced last week it would bury the bodies of militants in unmarked graves in a northern cemetery, prompting a Palestinian outcry and accusations Israel was trying to cover up the nature and scale of deaths inside the camp. The petition filed by Arab Israeli lawmakers blocked the movement of any bodies.

Today, military attorney Malkiel Blass indicated the army would be satisfied with the arrangement the court ultimately approved.

‘‘It is the position of the defendant (army) that the burial will be carried out quickly by Palestinian authorities,’’ the court decision said, adding that if the Palestinians stalled in burying bodies, the army could ‘‘bring the bodies to immediate burial’’.

The death toll in the camp hasn’t been verifiable, with access to the camp extremely limited. Israel’s army has estimated the death toll at 100 Palestinians; the Palestinians claim as many as 500 people died.

Israeli defence minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told the Israeli Cabinet today that the number of deaths in Jenin stands at ‘‘tens of killed and not hundreds - most of them gunmen who shot at our forces’’.

Reisner said 37 Palestinian bodies have been found in army searches of the Jenin refugee camp, and that 26 of them remain in locations that have been marked but not touched out of concern for booby-traps.