Specially-invited forensic teams will take samples from the remains of Yassar Arafat on Tuesday in an attempt to finally ascertain his cause of death.

The teams, from Switzerland, Russia, and France, were chosen to take samples from Arafat’s remains after his body is exhumed from his resting place in a mausoleum on the grounds of the Muqataa complex in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has his headquarters. The different teams will take separate samples. The outcome of the investigation of those samples can take months to be revealed.

French Judges in charge of the investigation into Arafat’s death eight years ago arrived in Ramallah yesterday along with investigators. Arafat was 75 at the time of his death. Because Arafat’s health deteriorated quickly just before he died, rumors have circulated that his death was brought on by poisoning. Arafat died in a French hospital November 11th, 2004.

A Swiss institute found high levels of Polonium-210 on Arafat’s clothing, specifically his underwear as well as his toothbrush. Polonium is a radioactive substance very hard to produce in any quantity and can only be successfully produced in laboratories such as those found in state-run facilities.

It has been long rumored that Israel had a hand in the democratically elected Palestinian leader’s death. Israel denied those rumors. In July a spokesman from Netanyahu’s administration dismissed the investigation as misguided, saying that “Israel was not involved in the death of Arafat.”

Experts are concerned that there may be little if any tissue left for sampling. They believe that the samples may have to be taken from bone. The samples may not contain any evidence of the radioactive substance as polonium has a very short half-life and may not be present in any detectable amounts.