RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- An unfinished piece of embroidery. Paint-stained work trousers. A set of prayer beads. A school book. A Nike sports cap.

All are personal effects of Palestinians and a foreigner killed during nearly five months of violence, preserved in an exhibition symbolizing their lives and their deaths.

The exhibition that opened Tuesday, called ''100 Shaheed -- 100 lives,'' features belongings from the dead, ranging from12-year-old Mohammed Aldura, whose family donated his sports shoes, to 58-year-old taxi driver Nabil Khater, whose key chain is displayed.

Since the current round of violence began on Sept. 28, 405 people have been killed, including 333 Palestinians, 14 Israeli Arabs, 57 other Israelis and a German doctor.

Clear plastic cases holding the different belongings reflect the soft light of the dimly lit halls. One man's family donated a birdcage. Another family offered a water pipe.

``It's as if they are bearing testimony to this thing, this condition of being a Palestinian. These people's lives and their deaths bear witness to that,'' said Adila Laidi, director of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, a non-governmental organization holding the exhibition.

Among those in the exhibition is German doctor Harald Fischer, who was struck by Israeli gunfire last November as he tried to help neighbors wounded in a rocket attack in Beit Jalla in the West Bank.

His family donated a card with a black and white drawing of a German village.

In two cases, there are personal effects but no photographs.

``These people are so poor they never had their photograph taken,'' Laidi explained. ``What a horrible life that you are so poor that you don't even have a memento of what they looked like.''

The exhibition also features a catalogue with more 200 pages of pictures and short biographies of the dead, alongside pictures of the donated items, bound together in a book printed in somber shades of brown.

``This catalogue unfortunately will end up presenting a snapshot of what it means to be a Palestinian. It's not a happy picture,'' Laidi said.

Organizers sidestepped a potential problem over the name of the exhibition. ``Shaheed'' is Arabic for martyr, but they refrained from translating the word into English, to avoid any religious connotation.

Laidi said the center began the project by writing to the families and asking them to donate something for the exhibition.

The U.S.-based Ford Foundation donated money to hold the exhibition. Laidi said the center hoped to take the display to other cities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and later, overseas.

``In the end we were all loving them, we knew them, we knew their lives, we knew who they were,'' she said.