NABLUS, October 30 (IslamOnline.net) - Palestinians living inside what is now Israel (Israeli Arabs) are increasingly contributing to a campaign championed by several charities to help needy Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

"With the start of Ramadan, a major relief campaign was launched and to help our people in the West Bank and Gaza," Ali Masarwa of the Islamic relief charity told IslamOnline.net Saturday, October 30.

He added the campaign was being promoted in schools, mosques and all Arab towns inside present Israel.

Masarwa asserted that Israeli Arabs are racing to contribute to the relief campaign to help their fellow Palestinians, suffering under the yoke of the Israeli occupation.

Tens of thousands of food packages were bought in addition to raising cash that would be given to poor Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, he added.

Masarwa described the campaign as part of the Israeli Arabs’ "commitment to help our brothers in the West Bank and Gaza who are subject to daily Israeli aggressions, including house demolition."

"Each poor Palestinian family receives a food package, but large families get more than one food package," Masarwa said.

He asserted that the aid packages are not restricted to the dawn-to-dusk fasting month, though the campaign gains more momentum during the holy month.

The charity official said the packages are being sent to the West Bank and Gaza Strip via trucks, citing easier access to the West Bank.

He said the food packages are distributed among poor Palestinian families by representatives of his the Islamic relief organization in accordance with several filed surveys.

The Islamic charity also caters for Palestinian orphans.

Masarwa said a relief organization inside what is now Israel also launched a campaign with the beginning of Ramadan to support as many as 1000 orphans in the West Bank and Gaza.

He noted the charity pays 1.6 million shekel a year to support 15,000 Palestinian orphans.

The Israeli occupation forces continue to place hurdles before the charities seeking to help the Palestinian people.

Masarwa cited closures as a regular Israeli measure to punish charities providing humanitarian efforts to the Palestinian people.

As a case in point, he said, the Islamic relief organization and the humanitarian relief group were closed down by the Israeli authorities for a couple of months in 1996 and 2001 respectively.