PUTRAJAYA, Dec 8 — Malaysia strongly supports the clarion call by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to urgently address the grave situation in Gaza, and to immediately declare a humanitarian ceasefire.

The Foreign Ministry in a statement on Friday night said Malaysia also lauds the secretary-general for bringing the matter to the attention of the Security Council, which is within his mandate under Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, as the continued atrocities committed in Gaza present a clear threat to the maintenance of international peace and security.

"The call by Secretary-General António Guterres demonstrates the gravity of the current situation in Gaza. The merciless attacks, bloodshed and crimes against humanity perpetrated against innocent civilians, especially children in Gaza, must stop,” it said.

The last time Article 99 was invoked by a United Nations secretary-general was in 1989.

The international community, foremostly the Security Council, has a responsibility to exhaust all efforts to prevent further escalation of atrocities, and end the catastrophic human suffering and physical destruction in Gaza, the ministry said in the statement.

It said that failure to act collectively and swiftly will only erode trust and faith of the international community in the credibility of the Security Council and the multilateral system as a whole.

"The Council must decide whether it wishes to remain paralysed due to cyclical political polarisation, or undertake a moral and ethical path by prioritising the protection of innocent civilians, as well as due respect and adherence to international law as mandated by the United Nations Charter,” it read.

It added that Malaysia will not yield in its unequivocal conviction, shared by many countries around the world, that the Palestinians deserve their own independent and sovereign state, based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its Capital. — Bernama