ISTANBUL 

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday that “innocent children are murdered with impunity” in the Gaza Strip, stressing “a deficit of trust in the international system.”

Anwar made the remarks after attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Plus summit held in the Chinese city of Tianjin, chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He mentioned the Global Governance Initiative introduced by Xi, noting that this idea “resonates deeply at a time when the multilateral system is faltering.”

“The United Nations no longer carries even the aspiration to reform itself,” he said through the US social media company X, adding that atrocities are being “committed with impunity.”

“There is today a deficit of trust in the international system. Failures in trade, financial architecture, and climate change response have exposed the disconnect between lofty declarations and the sufferings endured by the masses,” he said.

Mentioning the upcoming commemoration of the Chinese resistance at the end of World War II, he said: “It is the rejection of aggression, arrogance of power, colonialism, imperialism, and oppression of man by man, for these same forces continue to inflict suffering in our time.”

“The atrocities in Gaza and Palestine, where innocent children are murdered with impunity, stand before our very eyes. They extend to neighbors in Lebanon, Iran, and Iraq while the world remains helpless,” he added.

Israel has killed over 63,500 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.