New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is delighted at the Rs.15 million it has collected so far in response to its call to raise funds for Palestinians, who are facing an economic blockade.

"The response has been tremendous. The collection has already crossed Rs.15 million," said senior party leader Nilotpal Basu.

"I feel the timing when we gave the call (for collecting funds) was right. That's one of the reasons for such an amazing response," he said.

The party had given a call to collect funds for Palestinians in June. "The people in West Bank and Gaza are being literally starved to punish them for exercising their democratic right to choose their government," said a resolution passed by the party central committee.

Now the party leadership has to consult the Palestinian embassy here to decide how the funds it has collected could reach that country as cash transactions with Palestine have become complicated with the emergence of Hamas in power earlier this year.

"We are ready to give assistance in the form of medicines or ambulances or any other form that suits them. We have to work out a solution," Basu told IANS.

The CPI-M, which has been opposing economic sanctions against Palestine, wanted to provide the money directly to the suffering citizens. But the money transfer route is reportedly complicated.

New Delhi had in August this year sent the first batch of life-saving medicines under the humanitarian assistance programme for Palestine. The medical aid worth Rs.100 million had been handed over to the Palestinian presidency.

Palestinians have been facing a financial crisis as the world has distanced itself from the Palestinian Authority. Donor countries have stopped providing money and its economy is now on the verge of collapse.

The United States and the European Union stopped transferring economic aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is now controlled by Hamas - labelled by them as a terror organisation - after it won the elections this January.

Israel has also stopped transferring Palestinian tax money, which it collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, leading to non-payment of salaries to about 70 percent of the workforce in the troubled region.