KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA police arrested 21 people including two opposition MPs for protesting against Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip, an activist said Saturday.

'We were holding a candle light vigil to demand the end to the killing of innocent lives in Gaza,' said Ms E. Parameswari, 30, an activist with Jerit a group championing the rights of marginalised people in the country.

'Police used force to break up the gathering and arrested 21 people including opposition lawmakers Charles Santiago, Abdullah Sani and a local state assemblyman Nasir Hashim,' she told AFP.

Ms Parameswari said they were arrested at the popular Independence Square in the capital Kuala Lumpur late Saturday and taken to a local police station.

'Police said our gathering was illegal,' she told AFP.

Ms Parameswari condemned the police action, adding that the demonstrators did not provoke the police. 'The police action is an abuse of power.'

Mr S. Arutchelvan, secretary-general of the Socialist Party of Malaysia told AFP they were being held in a police lockup.

'Our arrest makes a mockery of the position taken by Malaysia to condemn Israel.

'The way the police acted against us is no difference from the way the Israelis are treating the Palestinian people,' he said from the police station.

The UN Security Council called on Friday for an immediate ceasefire to halt the two-week-old war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which has killed almost 800 Palestinians, many of them civilians.

A council resolution also called for the 'unimpeded' provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza. -- AFP