Palestinian officials said yesterday they would exhume the body of their leader Yasser Arafat next week to see if Israel poisoned him with a Russian-produced radioactive isotope.

The announcement came as a group of international experts arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah to take samples of the remains of the iconic leader’s bones and clothing for further study in European labs.

“The tomb will be opened on (Tuesday) and experts will take samples the same day within a matter of a few hours,” Tawfiq Tirawi told reporters in Ramallah.

He said a reburial ceremony would be held with full military honours later the same day in Arafat’s mausoleum at the heart of his Muqataa headquarters.

Tirawi stressed the procedure was painful but necessary to establish the truth of allegations that Israel may have poisoned Arafat.

He added that members of his commission remained convinced that Israel had used the radioactive element polonium to kill Arafat – the same poison used to assassinate Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Rumours and speculation have surrounded Arafat’s death ever since a quick deterioration of his condition saw him pass away at the Percy military hospital in suburban Paris in November 2004 at the age of 75.

French doctors were unable to say what killed him and a post-mortem was never performed.

But many Palestinians believed he was poisoned by Israel – a theory that gained ground in July when Al-Jazeera reported Swiss findings showing abnormal quantities of the radioactive substance polonium on Arafat’s personal effects.

France followed that up in late August by opening a formal murder inquiry at his widow’s request.

The experts who will be performing Tuesday’s operation under Palestinian command originate from Switzerland and Russia. They will accompany three French criminal investigators who will also be taking samples back home to Paris.

Tirawi said analysis of the samples will be conducted in all three countries.