Jerusalem seminary gunman buried

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A Palestinian who attacked a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem has been buried in private at the dead of night at the insistence of the Israeli authorities.

Police said they feared a mass funeral for Ala Abu Dhaim in East Jerusalem could spiral into a militant riot.

Abu Dhaim shot dead eight students at the Mercaz Harav seminary last week.

Israel occupied the city's mainly-Arab east side in 1967 and habitually stops nationalist or religious political activity by Palestinians there.

The seminary has been described as one of the most important centres for religious Zionist and the settlement movement.

Israeli police were originally going to hand over Abu Dhaim's body on Sunday, but kept hold of it after learning that dozens of people and several television crews were in attendance.

It was finally released in the early hours of Thursday and buried at 0300 in the presence of a small number of relatives in the village of Jabal Mukabir.

Israeli TV has reported students from the seminary had planned a revenge attack after the killings and rabbis they spoke to had reportedly given their blessing for such a move.

An attack - targeting a mosque official in Jerusalem - was not attempted and no arrests have been made, Israel's Channel One reported.

Israeli media reported on Wednesday that Public Security Minister Avi Dichter had instructed police to demolish the Abu Dhaim family home - a controversial policy dropped in 2005 to punish the families of suicide bombers.

Police have asked the Defence Ministry to examine the legality of the move.