ISTANBUL, Feb 23 — The Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Conference of Information Ministers (ICIM) will be Malaysia’s latest platform to reiterate its insistence on the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as well as increasing and expediting humanitarian assistance to the people there.

Ministry of Communications secretary-general Datuk Mohamad Fauzi Md Isa said Malaysia has maintained its position of unwavering support and solidarity for the Palestinians and their cause for achieving freedom from the Israeli occupation.

"Malaysia would not stop fighting for the Palestinians’ rights based on principles of international law and their cause for achieving freedom from the Israeli occupation.

"The politics of dispossession must stop, no disproportionate treatment in dealing with the conflict, and an apartheid regime should no longer exist,” he told Bernama here.

Mohamad Fauzi will lead the Malaysian delegation representing Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil at the one-day conference to be held here tomorrow.

Themed "The Israeli Government’s Disinformation and Hostilities against Journalists during the Israeli Occupation of Palestine”, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)-organised conference aims to discuss joint efforts to confront the Israeli occupying authority’s disinformation and hostilities against journalists and media outlets in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Turkiye is hosting the conference in its capacity as chair of the current session of ICIM, where it is expected that information ministers and ministers responsible for communication in OIC member states will participate.

OIC secretary-general Hissein Brahim Taha will deliver a speech at the conference to inform and update the participants of the ongoing crimes of the Israeli occupation against journalists and professionals in various media outlets and press and media institutions.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, killing over 29,000 people and causing mass destruction and shortages of necessities leading to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. — Bernama