The foreign ministry said it is the continued aggression by Israel against the innocents in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territory at large that poses a real and ongoing threat to durable peace and the ultimate two-state solution.

“The current humanitarian situation in Gaza is simply untenable.

“The Malaysian government is deeply saddened by this outrageous decision to ignore the clamour and appeal from the international community,” Wisma Putra said in a statement responding to Friday’s  US veto against the United Nations resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza,  breaking the growing push for an immediate ceasefire led by UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres and Arab countries.

Before exercising Washington’s veto, deputy US ambassador to the UN Robert Wood was reported to have said: “We do not support this resolution’s call for an unsustainable ceasefire that will only plant the seeds for the next war.”

Wisma Putra said Malaysia had expressed regret over the UN Security Council’s failure to adopt a resolution despite it receiving significant support from 102 countries, including Malaysia, which was a testament to the international community’s desire to see an immediate end to the egregious assault on Gaza.

Malaysia is unyielding in its conviction that the Palestinians deserve their own independent and sovereign state, based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Palestine News Agency quoted the country’s health ministry that the death toll had soared to 17,674, with over 49,300 people wounded.