ANKARA

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Sunday that the Western world needs to stop trying to control the international media merely for the sake of highlighting "inaccurate narratives" about the ongoing war in Gaza.

Inaugurating the All-Malaysian Mosque Summit for Al-Aqsa and Palestine in Kuala Lumpur, he stressed that the West does not need to teach the Muslim world about the "meaning of democracy, human rights, and sustainable development," the state-run Bernama news agency reported.

Around 700 representatives of mosques and NGOs, foreign ambassadors, scholars, and observers from several countries attended the summit organized by the Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations of Malaysia.

Western countries, Anwar went on to say, also need to correct the narrative and admit that the unrest in Palestine started in 1948 and has lasted since then, and is not due to the Hamas attack last Oct.7.

“We need to be clear and cannot be determined by the Western countries that want to start the narrative on October 7," Anwar was quoted as saying.

​​​​​​​“The continuous destruction (in Palestine) happened since 1948, followed by the direct invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969. In fact, now the destruction continues, whether infrastructure or human and genocide. This is what happened,” he argued.

Malaysia remains committed to not allowing companies registered with Israel to enter and carry out any activities in the country, he added.

He said that the previous government, which strongly opposed Israel’s tyranny, still allowed direct trade with such companies in the country.

With Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip continuing, the death toll since last Oct. 7 has reached 40,405, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Israel has continued its offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last Oct. 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.