3:02pm UK, Monday November 07, 2005

The parents of a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli soldiers have donated his organs to three Israeli children.

Ahmad Khatib, 12, was carrying a toy rifle when he was gunned down on Thursday in the West Bank town of Jenin.

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Ahmad's funeral on Sunday

The soldiers, who were conducting a raid, had mistaken him for a militant.

The boy died on Sunday but three Israeli girls underwent surgery to receive his lungs, heart and liver.

Ahmad's father Ismail Khatib said the decision to donate the organs was influenced by the fact his 24-year-old brother died while waiting for a liver transplant.

Mr Khatib hoped the gesture would send a message of peace to Israelis and Palestinians.

He said: "In our religion, God allows us to give organs to another person and it doesn't matter who the person is."

The father of 12-year-old Samah Gadban, who had been waiting five years for a heart, called the donation a "gesture of love."

Riad Gadban said: "I want to thank him (Mr Khatib) and his family. With their gift, I would like for them to think that my daughter is their daughter."

The Schneider Children's Medical Centre in Israel reported that a 14-year-old Jewish girl has received Ahmad's lungs and a seven-month-old girl was given his liver.

Israel has a chronic shortage of donor organs that many medical officials attribute to Jewish religious taboos against such donations.