April 14, 2002	Sunday	Muharram 30, 1423

TEL AVIV, April 13: Israel’s supreme court has ordered the army not to bury the bodies of Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp amid charges of a massacre there, public radio reported on Saturday.

The order comes after allegations that Israeli troops were using bulldozers to make mass graves and cover up a “massacre” during the fierce week-long battle at the camp which ended on Thursday.

The camp is off limits to reporters, making claims impossible to verify independently. The matter was brought up to the courts by Israeli Arab MPs.

The Palestinians have appealed to the United Nations for help and asked US Secretary of State Colin Powell to visit the camp while he is in the region.

They say the bodies, including many women and children, are being hastily buried before the outside world is let in to see what has gone on in Jenin.

The Israeli army says it believes 250 Palestinians were killed. The Palestinians say it was at least double that number.

EU WARNING: The European Union warned on Saturday of “serious consequences” from combat between the Israeli army and Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp and called again on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories.

The EU also condemned Friday’s suicide bombing by a Palestinian woman who blew herself up and killed six Israelis, saying such attacks only increased suffering in the region.

“The presidency of the European Union considers news about events in the Jenin camp very alarming and if confirmed would have serious consequences,” the EU presidency, currently held by Spain, said in a statement.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was in Israel on a ceasefire mission, stopped in Spain earlier this week to meet European leaders before going to the Middle East.

8 FOUND DEAD: The bodies of eight Palestinians from the same family have been pulled from the rubble of their Nablus home, destroyed during heavy fighting in the West Bank city, witnesses said on Saturday.

Two members of the Shuby family, Abdullah, 65, and Shamsa, 56, were pulled out alive, witnesses said. They were found on Friday trapped in a room under the debris, about five days after the three-storey building came down.

A neighbour of the family, Samer Ajaj, said the three-storey house had been damaged at the start of the week when Israeli troops, battling Palestinians, fired rockets from aircraft and shells from tanks in the crowded area of the old city.

Ajaj said an Israeli army bulldozer ploughed into the building on Monday morning. It was not clear at what point the structure collapsed.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said the area had been the scene of heavy fighting but the army did not target civilian homes.

She said buildings in some areas of fighting had been booby-trapped by Palestinians.

Israeli bulldozers have in the past smashed into buildings to widen narrow alleys in West Bank towns and cities to allow armoured vehicles to pass through