GEORGE TOWN, April 5 — The government has expressed its readiness to provide additional assistance for humanitarian missions to the Palestinian people after Israel allowed the delivery of aid through border crossings with the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the additional assistance for Palestine could be carried out because the government still has the allocation for it.

"(Is there additional assistance) Insya-Allah, we will assist because we still have allocation, there’s a queue of hundreds of lorries (for assistance), so let’s clear that first, (so that) the distribution (of aid) is more organised,” he told reporters after performing Friday prayers with 2,000 congregants at the Sungai Ara Al-Huda Mosque in Bayan Lepas here today.

The media today reported an announcement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stating that Israel will allow the delivery of "temporary aid” through its border with the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Elaborating, Anwar said that the humanitarian aid mission from Malaysia is currently on standby at the Rafah border.

"(The total value of Malaysian aid available) I can’t remember but three or four times already. I asked (Egyptian) President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi twice, and two weeks ago he helped expedite it, and the third time it arrived, but now what’s on standby is still there,” he said.

Earlier, Anwar and the other congregants listened to the sermon by the Penang Fatwa committee member Associate Professor Mohd Sukki Othman, before performing Friday prayers, led by the mosque’s Imam, Syaraafat Yaacob.

After the Friday prayers, the prime minister spent some time to greet and mingle with the congregants.

Anwar is scheduled to attend the Penang development briefing at Komtar here before heading to the Madani Bubur Lambuk Programme at the Kubang Semang Mosque in Bukit Mertajam, conducting a walkabout at the Seberang Jaya Public Market Ramadan Bazaar and attending the state-level Madani breaking of fast event at UiTM Penang during his visit to the state today. — Bernama