A PALESTINIAN couple whose son died after being shot by Israeli soldiers donated his organs yesterday to three Israeli patients desperately waiting for transplants.

Israel today closed the vital Gaza-Egypt border crossing just days before completing its military pullout from the coastal strip.

With blazing speed, Israeli bulldozers are demolishing the 2,800 homes left behind after Israel cleared the Gaza Strip of its Jewish residents in less than a week.

The alleged top al-Qaida operative in Lebanon, who was captured last week in a security operation that broke up a terrorist network, died of a heart attack today, hospital and security officials said.

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside a train station in central Israel early today, killing himself and a security guard and injuring 10 bystanders.

A stern call by Arab ministers to sever all political contacts with Israel has thrown into question whether recent Egyptian-Jordanian efforts to mediate an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire will be dropped even as Middle East violence escalates.