NABLUS, August 21 (IslamOnline.net) - In a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails fighting their 'Empty Stomach' battle for the seventh day running, the Palestinian medical relief committees union decided to distribute some 7,000 school bags to the Palestinian detainees' sons in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"The relief committees annually distribute school bags to the poor and orphans in the Palestinian territories," Dr. Ghassan Hemdan, chairman of the Palestinian medical relief committees union told IslamOnline.net Saturday, August 21.

"This year we decided to distribute most of the bags to the sons of the Palestinian detainees in a bid to express solidarity with their hunger strike especially that their families are living in hell as the scholastic year approaches with their fathers absent," he added.

The union chairman said the donation is made in cooperation with the Palestinian Mandela NGO for detainees' rights, noting that ordinary people can offer their donations to the Mandela organization and the relief committees.

Dr. Hemdan said the activities of the union are not only confine to the school students but also cover the university students.

"Our activities are not confined to school students but they extend to the university students as we had provided the 550 students of An-Najah university in Nablus with their study fees over the past two years."

He stressed that the union also offers humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people as well as organizing meetings for raising the medical awareness among the Palestinian citizens.

The donators believe the initiative is a sign of social solidarity among the Palestinian people.

"Every year we donate hundreds of school bags for the needy and poor and the relief organizations," a donator and an owner of school bags workshop told IslamOnline.net.

"As I'm able to donate, I have to do for getting the God blessings as it is a show of social solidarity among the Muslims especially the Palestinians who suffer under occupation."

Along with the activities of the relief charities, many Palestinians make individual initiatives to collect donations for the needy families.

Hanein, a house wife, said before the beginning of the scholastic year, she collects donations from her friends and rich people to distribute among poor Palestinians.