The United Nations General Assembly voted on a non-binding resolution asking for an urgent humanitarian truce in Gaza, placing Israel under pressure.
The assembly, which comprises all 193 UN member countries, voted 153 in favor of the resolution, much outnumbering the 140 or so countries that have frequently supported resolutions criticizing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Ten countries voted against the resolution, including the United States and Israel, while 23 abstained.
The decision in the General Assembly came after the Security Council, which is in charge of global peace and security, had repeatedly failed to make such a call.
The Council took more than a month after the commencement of Israel's onslaught on Gaza to speak out, and it did so with a feeble voice, asking for humanitarian "pauses" in the fighting in mid-November after four rejected texts.
"These tragic attempts are a despicable sign of double standards," said Egypt's UN envoy, Osama Mahmoud Abdelkhalek Mahmoud, of Washington's efforts to offer diplomatic support for Israel ahead of the General Assembly decision.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that a "complete breakdown of public order" is on the horizon in the beleaguered Gaza Strip.
Many nations and human rights groups decried the Security Council's failure last Friday, and Guterres said on Sunday that the Council's authority and credibility had been "undermined."
According to Izzat El-Reshiq, a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamist group, Hamas hailed the United Nations' call for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza and asked the international community to continue forcing Israel to comply with the resolution.
On the other hand, following a threat given by Yemen's top Houthi leader, Israel dispatched four more warships to the Red Sea on Wednesday.
"Four new Sa'ar 6-class corvettes sailed for the first time to the Red Sea, joining the Israeli Navy's operational activities," the Israeli army said on X, previously Twitter.