The Israeli High Court ordered the army not to remove the bodies of Palestinians killed in fighting in the Jenin refugee camp until a hearing is held on the matter.
The decision came in response to a petition presented by attorney Jamil Dakaur from the Arab "Adala" organization.
A three-judge panel will discuss the issue Sunday morning.
The Court also ordered the State Prosecutor to respond to charges that the Israeli army buried the bodies in a huge mass grave, as Palestinian sources claimed Thursday, and if so, why, Haaretz reported.
The sources said that the army used bulldozers to cover them up, Palestinian sources said Thursday. The army vehemently denied the allegations.
Signers to the petition - which also included the "Qanon" non-profit organization, Member of Knesset Mohammed Barakeh and Ahmed Tibi - made the request after Ha'aretz reported that the Israeli army intended to bury those identified by the army as “terrorists” in a special cemetery for fallen enemy troops in the Jordan Valley.
The Israeli army said that the bodies of Palestinian civilians killed in the fighting would be taken to the hospital in Jenin and later buried.
According to Tibi, removing the bodies from the city is a violation of international law and is meant to hide the truth from the public about the killing that occurred there.
Soldiers had been removing bodies since Thursday and plans were to continue to do so.
Meanwhile, Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo accused Israel, in a letter sent to the global community, of digging mass graves for 900 Palestinians in Jenin's refugee camp.
"Half of the buried bodies were those of women and children," Rabbo said, in the letter addressed to heads of states, parliaments and other government bodies.
"Entire families have been destroyed and the army is trying to hide the truth," Rabbo said, alluding to the army's ban on reporters entering the northern West Bank city and its refugee camp.
With the death toll still in dispute, the Palestinian Authority has asked for an international inquiry on the nine-day battle in Jenin, which ended Thursday.
An Israeli army official strongly denied the Palestinian allegations of indiscriminate killings and mass graves at a press conference Friday night. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
