KUALA LUMPUR: If it is true that the Israelis were defending themselves from rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian groups, then they should fight in their own country and not on Palestinian land, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The former Malaysian prime minister said Israel's excuse that they have the right to defend themselves is not acceptable because Palestinians were the ones trying to defend themselves.

"I am sure the Israelis after this will take over Sheikh Jarrah and the land where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands...," he said during a virtual interactive session themed 'Palestine: Malaysia With Love' moderated by Farrah Adeeba in his Facebook page last night.

Dr Mahathir who always wanted to go back to his original struggle in wanting to make wars of aggression a crime, described the action of Israel conducting intense attacks in different parts of the blockaded Gaza City as an unfair fight as the Palestinians were weak and do not have weapons like that of the Zionist regime's.

His words echoed Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein's concern who said it is an insult when other countries come out and speak about the right of Israel to self-defence, and not a single word about the Palestinian right to self-defence when Palestinians slaughtered, and have been occupied for over 50 years.

Hishammuddin said this in his speech during the virtual open-ended extraordinary meeting for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Executive Committee at the level of the foreign ministers on Sunday.

Prior to this, US President Joe Biden was reported as saying that "Israel has a right to defend itself" amid a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian groups from Gaza in retaliation to Israel's recent aggression.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip on Sunday rose to 197, including 58 children and 34 women, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The number of injured has reached 1,235, while many buildings have been destroyed or damaged.The recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and spread to Gaza after Palestinian fighters there vowed to retaliate against Israeli assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah if they were not halted.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognised by the international community.

-- BERNAMA