How every country voted as UN General Assembly backs Gaza ceasefire 153-10

The UN General Assembly has backed a call for a ceasefire in Gaza, with 153 countries in favour, while ten countries including the US and Israel opposed it.

The UK was among 23 countries (full list below) to abstain on the motion, which is largely symbolic and has little binding impact on the conflict.

The resolution expresses “grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population,” and says Palestinians and Israelis must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.

It also demands that all parties comply with international humanitarian law, “notably with regard to the protection of civilians,” and calls for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access.”

Egypt’s ambassador Osama Mahmoud Abdelkhalek Mahmoud said the resolution was “very simple, clear and explicit.

The vote serves as a bellwether of global opinion, however, with the 153 nations backing a ceasefire up significantly from a 27 October resolution that called for a “humanitarian truce”, which was passed by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions.

Related Article

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said the vote would “send a message to Washington and to others”.

The resolution makes no mention of Hamas, whose militants killed about 1,200 people and abducted about 240 in the surprise attack inside Israel on 7 October that set off the war. Two amendments seeking to add a call for hostages to be released failed to reach the required threshold to be added to the bill.

Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram argued against both the proposed amendments, saying that any blame “has to be placed on both parties, especially on Israel.”

“When you deny people freedom and dignity, when you humiliate and trap them in an open-air prison, where you kill them as if they were beasts – they become very angry and they do to others what was done to them,” he told the General Assembly.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan claimed: “A ceasefire means one thing and one thing only – ensuring the survival of Hamas, ensuring the survival of genocidal terrorists committed to the annihilation of Israel and Jews.

“A ceasefire is a death sentence for countless more Israelis and Gazans,” he told the General Assembly. “By voting in favour of this resolution you are supporting the survival of Jihadist terror and the continued suffering of people of Gaza.”

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “Any ceasefire right now would be temporary at the best and dangerous at worst – dangerous to Israelis, who would be subject to relentless attacks, and also dangerous to Palestinians, who deserve the chance to build a better future for themselves, free from Hamas.”

But President Joe Biden told a fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign that Israel was losing international support because of “indiscriminate bombing that takes place.”

How countries voted

No (10)

• Austria
• Czechia
• Guatemala
• Israel
• Liberia
• Micronesia
• Nauru
• Papua New Guinea
• Paraguay
• United States

Abstain (23)

• Argentina
• Bulgaria
• Cabo Verde
• Cameroon
• Equatorial Guinea
• Georgia
• Germany
• Hungary
• Italy
• Lithuania
• Malawi
• Marshall Islands
• Netherlands
• Palau
• Panama
• Romania
• Slovakia
• South Sudan
• Togo
• Tonga
• Ukraine
• United Kingdom
• Uruguay

Yes (153)

• Afghanistan
• Albania
• Algeria
• Andorra
• Angola
• Antigua-Barbuda
• Armenia
• Australia
• Azerbaijan
• Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belarus
• Belgium
• Belize
• Benin
• Bhutan
• Bolivia
• Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Botswana
• Brazil
• Brunei
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Canada
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Chile
• China
• Colombia
• Congo
• Costa Rica
• Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
• Croatia
• Cuba
• Cyprus
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Denmark
• Djibouti
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Eritrea
• Estonia
• Ethiopia
• Fiji
• Finland
• France
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Greece
• Grenada
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana
• Honduras
• Iceland
• India
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Ireland
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Kenya
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan
• Laos
• Latvia
• Lebanon
• Lesotho
• Libya
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Madagascar
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Mali
• Malta
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Mexico
• Moldova
• Monaco
• Mongolia
• Montenegro
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Myanmar
• Namibia
• Nepal
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Niger
• Nigeria
• North Korea
• North Macedonia
• Norway
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Peru
• Philippines
• Poland
• Portugal
• Qatar
• Russia
• Rwanda
• Saint Kitts-Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Samoa
• San Marino
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• Serbia
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Singapore
• Slovenia
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan
• Suriname
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Syria
• Tajikistan
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Trinidad-Tobago
• Tunisia
• Tuvalu
• Turkey
• Uganda
• United Arab Emirates
• United Republic of Tanzania
• Uzbekistan
• Vanuatu
• Vietnam
• Yemen
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

No vote recorded

• Burkina Faso
• Eswatini
• Haiti
• Kiribati
• São Tomé-Príncipe
• Turkmenistan
• Venezuela