Australia has abstained from voting on a call for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza at the UN General Assembly.

The non-binding resolution to pave the way for a ceasefire, passed with 120 countries in support, 14 countries against, and 45 abstaining, including Australia.

Australia’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, James Larsen, told the assembly Australia “abstained with disappointment” because the resolution was “incomplete”.

“The resolution did not recognise terror group Hamas as the perpetrator of the 7 October attack, and Australia again explicitly calls for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages,” he said.

“We can affirm Israel’s right to defend itself, while also saying the way it does so matters.”

His comments echoed Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong who earlier this week said the way Israel exercised its right to defend itself mattered, as she called for a humanitarian pause on hostilities so that essentials like food, water and medicine could reach people in need in Gaza.

Leader of the Federal Greens Adam Bandt criticised the abstention in a post on X, formerly Twitter, questioning “what will it take for Labor to push for peace”.

“As Israel & its military attempt to act with complete impunity, our gov doesn’t even have the courage to tell them to ‘stop’,” he wrote.

“How many more thousands of people must be killed for Labor to join the call for a ceasefire?”

He also said the government was failing to answer the calls of communities “marching for peace”.

Israel has said the Hamas terror attack on October 7 killed 1,400 people, with more than two hundred more taken hostage into Gaza.

Since then, the Gaza health ministry has said more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes.

‘Enough is enough’

The resolution was proposed by Jordan and received support from nations including Indonesia, France and China.

Israel, the United States and Fiji were among the countries that voted no, while Canada and India were also among the nations that abstained.

“Despite disagreement on this resolution, efforts behind the scenes make clear that most member states are acting in good faith — and want to chart a path out of this crisis, towards a political process,” Mr Larsen said.

Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour welcomed the outcome and said it sent a message that the fighting must end.

“The General Assembly prevailed and sent the appropriate message not only to the Palestinian people that there is justice and fairness and international humanitarian law upholded by the General Assembly, but also it sent a message to everyone [that] enough is enough – this war has to stop,” he said.

But Israel’s ambassador Gilad Erdan said the vote would go down in infamy.

“This organisation was founded in the wake of the holocaust for the purpose of preventing atrocities, yet the spectacle that we just saw proves beyond a doubt that the UN is committed, sadly, tragically, not to preventing but ensuring further atrocities,” he said.