Israeli police hold gunman's body

A deal to hand over the body at night was cancelled by police

Israeli police are holding on to the body of Palestinian gunman Ala Abu Dhaim for fear his funeral may turn into a big political protest.

Abu Dhaim killed eight Jewish students at a Jerusalem seminary last week before an off-duty soldier shot him.

Police want a low-key funeral with just five relatives taking part and no media coverage, family sources said.

Police have already removed flags of the militant Hamas group from a mourning tent outside the family home.

"A mass funeral for a dead terrorist could create a violent public disturbance," said Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby.

"The family agreed but the media showed up and we had to cancel the funeral, we are hoping it will happen tomorrow," he said.

The family live in East Jerusalem, an area occupied by Israel in 1967 and where the Israeli authorities usually prevent any manifestations of Palestinian nationalism or religious militancy.

Separately, a senior Israeli minister has expressed concern about the angry reaction of students at the seminary to a visit on Sunday by his cabinet colleague, the education minister Yuli Tamir.

"We've seen such things before... and apparently they haven't learned their lesson," said National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer at a Labour party meeting.

He referred specifically to the atmosphere of incitement among some religious Jews against the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin before his assassination by right-wing religious activist Yigal Amir in 1995.

Yuli Tamir's trip to the Mercaz Harav seminary on Sunday ended with her being jostled by dozens of students who shouted abuse at her and called a "murderer".

The seminary is an important centre for the religious settler movement and many students strongly oppose the government's plans to dismantle some settlements in the occupied West Bank.