KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2- Malaysia strongly calls on all parties in the Middle East to urgently de-escalate the heightening tensions destabilising the region.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia is also urging all concerned parties to take immediate action to reduce hostilities and establish conditions necessary to prevent a broader regional conflict from erupting. 

Anwar stressed that the continued aggression and attacks by Israel in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen were deliberate attempts to divert the global community’s focus from its brutal atrocities and acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

“This escalation is plainly aimed at keeping Israel’s current political leaders in power and out of prison, sacrificing innocent lives at the altar of one man’s political career,” Anwar said in his Facebook posting.

The Prime Minister said a dangerous cycle of action and reaction, which threatens to draw even more parties into the conflict and further deepening instability and broadening the scale of destruction, must urgently be prevented.

On Tuesday, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres condemned the broadening of the Middle East conflict, saying that a ceasefire is absolutely needed. 

Israel's military announced late Monday that it had launched "a focused and limited" ground campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, with media reports stating that 95 people have been killed and 172 others injured over the past 24 hours in airstrikes.

In Syria's capital, Damascus, explosions were heard across the city as news was emerging about Israeli forces beginning a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.- BERNAMA