Najib welcomes UNSC's move for ceasefire in Gaza conflict

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has welcomed the United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) 12-hour ceasefire in Gaza, allowing access to volunteers to provide urgent humanitarian relief.

"I welcome UNSC's call for immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza. Too many innocent lives have been lost. We need commitment towards peace," he said in a tweet today.

In a statement today, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who returned from a six-day tour of a number of Middle Eastern countries also renewed his appeal to the parties in the conflict to observe a week-long ceasefire to pave the way for the resumption of negotiations.

Ban also reminded that any bid for peace that did not address the root causes of the crisis would do little more than set the stage for the next cycle of violence.

According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the latest Israeli military offensive in Gaza, that is home to 1.8 million people, had left hundreds dead and thousands injured.

Other international NGOs say that the number of civilian mortality in the Israeli campaign exceeded 1,000 on the Palestinian side.