Malaysian Prime Minster Anwar Ibrahim addressing a parliament session. (Photo by Reuters)

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has dismissed Western pressure to condemn Palestinian Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against Israel.

The Malaysian head of state reiterated on Monday that Kuala Lumpur maintains relations of cooperation with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

In his address to parliament, Anwar Ibrahim said Western officials have been pressing his administration to condemn Hamas but his government does not agree with the Western attitude.

I said that we, as a policy, have a relationship with Hamas from before, and this will continue.

As such, we don’t agree with their pressuring attitude, as Hamas, too, won in Gaza freely through elections, and Gazans chose them to lead.

Last week, Anwar had censured certain states for what he said was their one-sided stance on the Israeli war on Gaza.

The international community continues to take one-sided actions regarding all forms of cruelty and oppression to the Palestinian people. The confiscation of land and property belonging to the Palestinian people is done relentlessly by the Zionists, he said on X.

Malaysia, where about 60 percent of the population is Muslim, is a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights and does not have diplomatic ties with Israel.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad also recently censured Western states and their media outlets for their hypocrisy toward the recent Palestinian operation against Israel. Mahathir said the narrative run by certain Western states was far from truth given the seven decades of atrocities by Israel against the Palestinians.

Israeli warplanes keep bombarding the fully besieged Gaza Strip, reducing the territory to rubble.

Over 2,800 Palestinians, including more than 1,000 children, have been killed in relentless Israeli bombardment since October 7, when Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm in response to continuing Israeli violation of the rights of Palestinians.

About 10,000 others have been wounded so far. Palestinian civil defense officials say over 1,000 people are missing under the rubble of buildings destroyed in airstrikes.

The occupiers have blocked the supply of water, electricity, fuel and medicines into the Palestinian territory.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has warned that Gaza is witnessing an unprecedented human catastrophe.

Reports suggest there was no change in Israel’s scheme to launch a major ground offensive into Gaza despite warnings by governments and experts that the move could cause the conflict to spiral out of control and would result in more deaths among the Palestinians.