New York, New York - The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.

The paper introduced by Egypt achieved the necessary two-thirds majority in New York on Tuesday. 153 countries voted in favor, 10 against, including the United States and Israel, while 23 abstained.

United Nations General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, and are considered symbolic. But they also provide an insight into the mood of the world's nations. Alongside the Arab world, the majority of countries in the so-called Global South voted in favor.

The countries of the European Union presented a mixed picture. While the UK abstained alongside Germany, France and Greece were among those voting in favor. Among those voting against were Israel, the US, Paraguay, Austria and Guatemala.

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152 countries out of the 193 members voted in favor of the resolution. That's significantly more than at the end of October, when 120 countries at the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution to improve the humanitarian situation and for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. At that time, 14 voted against and 45 abstained.

The resolution that has now been passed, with its call for a permanent ceasefire, goes significantly further than the call at the time for at least a temporary ceasefire.

The resolution also expresses great concern about the "catastrophic humanitarian situation" in the Gaza Strip and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

The vote came after the UN Security Council – responsible for global peace and security – has repeatedly failed to make such a call.

On Friday, the United States, Israel's most powerful ally and one of only five permanent members of the Security Council, wielded its veto to halt the latest draft text calling for a truce.

The text that was passed on Tuesday largely reproduced the resolution blocked in the Council on Friday by the United States.

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Ahead of vote, the prime ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand – close allies of Israel as well as the United States – said in a joint statement that "we are alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza."

"The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians," they said.