KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — Malaysia is ready to send its troops for a peacekeeping mission in Palestine if there is a request from the United Nations, said Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He said Malaysia cannot act arbitrarily as the matter should be decided by the UN.

"The decision to send army personnel to Palestine also involves international laws,” he told reporters after attending a briefing on the preparedness of Malaysian Armed Forces’ (MAF) medical services in helping the country face the Covid-19 pandemic at the Tuanku Mizan Armed Forces Hospital here today.

Ismail Sabri said in the past, Malaysia had sent its peacekeeping teams through the United Nations to various countries such as Lebanon, the Philippines, Sudan and Sierra Leone.

He said this when asked to comment on whether the Defence Ministry would send MAF personnel to Palestine for a peacekeeping mission.

On May 15, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his Special Message on Issues on Palestine said that Malaysia was saddened and disappointed by the inability of the UN Security Council to immediately halt Israeli violence against the Palestinians, saying the attacks are a war crime which violates the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention.

It was reported that the Israeli Zionist regime’s aggression and attacks this time on Palestinians started with the attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque on May 7, followed by airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since last Monday.

Since then, more than 100 people have been killed while hundreds were injured. — Bernama