Al-Khalil (IRNA) -- The Zionist authorities have destroyed a shipment of medicine, vitamins and other food supplements to disabled Palestinian children in the refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, some of whom suffer from down syndrome and malnutrition.

According to officials of Al-Awda hospital in Gaza, the shipment was worth tens of thousands of dollar.

"The shipment was held at the airport in Tel Aviv and we were told that certain documents were needed. However when the documents were provided and every time we submitted a document, another was demanded," said Dr. M. Al Farra of the Al-Awda hospital. "Eventually, the Israeli government destroyed the shipment of the vitamins without any explanation."

The shipment in question was donated by the U.S.-based Holy Land Trust, a Christian charity.

A UN report last month accused the Zionist regime of preventing food and water from hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Palestinian sources said Israeli port authorities were holding up hundreds of tons of food materials donated to the Palestinians without any explanation.

The Israeli occupation army tightly sealed the occupied territories when the Aqsa intifada broke out more than three years ago.

Since then, Palestinian population centers have been reduced to virtual detention camps, with Palestinians barred from traveling outside their immediate population centers.

Israel has also been restricting foreign food aid to the Palestinians, pushing many impoverished Palestinian families to the edge of starvation.