A seriously ill six-month-old Palestinian baby, who became the focus of headlines across the world when he received a heart transplant from a Jewish child, has died.

Musa was born with a range of life-threatening conditions and received the transplant at Sheba Hospital in Ramat Gan last week.

Doctors had been praying for his recovery since the operation but a spokesman for the hospital said that he was “just too sick” and died on Tuesday morning.

The spokesperson said it was a “miracle” that the baby had made it through the operation itself, believed to be the hospital’s first heart transplant on a child so young.

The surgical team said the baby initially appeared to be recovering better than they had hoped.

The hospital spokesperson said the team were “desperately sad".

 “It’s very tough for the medical team because they are performing extraordinary operations like this every day,” they said.

Musa was transferred to the Israeli hospital after doctors in the West Bank city of Ramallah struggled to treat his medical problems after his heart went into failure three weeks ago.

Speaking after the procedure last week, Dr David Mishaly, chief surgeon at Sheba’s paediatric and congenital heart surgery unit said: “There were several miracles associated with this complicated surgery.”

He said that Musa was only able to receive the transplant because the parents of a Jewish child who had just died agreed to the donation.