Palestinians are preparing on Friday to receive the body of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who will be buried at al Muqata'a, his headquarters in the West Bank.

Thousands of Palestinians gathered at al Muqata'a to wait for their late president Yasser Arafat, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 75 at Percy Military Hospital in France.

Arafat's coffin wrapped with a Palestinian flag would be carried by an Egyptian helicopter on Friday afternoon from Cairo, then al Areesh in Sinai Peninsula and then to Ramallah.

Azzam el Ahmed, a minister of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) said the grave was dug at al Muqata'a and is ready.

Arafat spent about three years at al Muqata'a, which the Israeli army had raided several times and destroyed severely and kept him under siege for about three years.

Officials at al Muqata'a said a box made of cements was put into the grave, which the coffin made of wood would be put into.

Palestinian official sources said the reason the grave made of cements, and the coffin of wood was to be easy in the future to convey the coffin safely, not damaged from Ramallah to Jerusalem.

"Sooner or later, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will be buried in Jerusalem, whether Israel accepts it or not, and I myself promise that as long as I'm alive I will do my best to bury Arafat in Jerusalem," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official.

Handful of sands were brought from Jerusalem, especially the sand of al Aqsa Mosque, where Arafat wished to be buried, and will be put on his grave, in addition to bringing four olive trees from the area of al Aqsa Mosque to be planted around his grave in al Muqata'a, Palestinian officials said.

Israel had always rejected to bury Arafat in east Jerusalem Israel occupied in 1967.