UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly late Friday to demand an immediate and durable ceasefire in the strife-torn Gaza Strip leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

In a non-binding amended resolution, the 192-member body demanded "full respect" of a Security Council resolution adopted last week calling for "an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces" from Gaza.

Council resolution 1860 also called for the "unimpeded provision and distribution throughout the Gaza Strip of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment."

The assembly vote, which came after hours of procedural wrangling, was 142 in favor with three against and nine abstentions, according to a revised vote count. Assembly president Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann earlier said the vote was 142 in favour, six against with eight abstentions.

Israel, the United States and Nauru cast no votes.

Ryad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, immediately welcomed the assembly's "almost unanimous vote" to pressure Israel to comply with Council resolution 1860.

"We shall prevail because of your support," he added.

The compromise assembly text, which slightly amended an earlier draft circulated Thursday by D'Escoto, was negotiated by Egypt on behalf the Palestinian Authority with European Union ambassadors.

It dropped an earlier reference to Israel as "the occupying power" in Gaza and inserted a sentence "emphasizing that the Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations must be protected and their suffering must end."

The resolution also expressed support for the current mediation undertaken by UN chief Ban Ki-moon and for other international and regional efforts underway.

It called on all member states to urgently extend the necessary support to international and regional efforts aimed at alleviating the critical humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.

A group of assembly hardliners, including Ecuador, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nicaragua, sought a vote on a tougher draft but was overruled.

The hardliners' text demanded "full respect for Security Council resolution 1860, calls for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza."

Friday's assembly decision capped two days of contentious debate in which Israel was roundly condemned by many UN delegations for its deadly assault on Gaza that included strikes Thursday on hospital, media and UN buildings.

Israel sought but failed to block the session on procedural grounds, arguing that under the UN Charter, the 192-member assembly cannot inject itself on a matter already being tackled by the powerful Security Council.

Israel's delegate, Meirav Shahar, dismissed the resolution as "irrelevant," "one-sided" and "procedurally and substantially flawed," noting that it did not mention rocket attacks on southern Israel.

US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff, who earlier in the day urged the assembly not to undermine ongoing diplomatic efforts to arrange a Gaza truce, slammed the resolution.

"A separate General Assembly is neither necessary nor helpful, certainly not an unbalanced one that is silent on the issue of Hamas rocket attacks," he noted.

But an emotional Indonesian Ambassador Marty Natalegawa, explaining his reason for abstaining, said the resolution did not go far enough "in condemning Israel" for its deadly assault.

Israel's three-week-old onslaught on Gaza has left at least 1,188 Palestinians dead, including 410 children, and another 5,130 wounded, triggering a worldwide outcry, particularly in the Islamic world.

At least 55 Palestinians were killed on Friday, including at least 10 people who died when a tank shell slammed into their house in Gaza City during a funeral wake, according to Palestinian medics.

Natalegawa said the resolution failed to "explicitly say to Israel: Enough is enough. End your violence and out of Gaza."

Egypt has been shuttling between Israel and Hamas in a bid to secure an end to the fighting in Gaza, which Israel launched on December 27 to stem Palestinian rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled enclave.

Israel's security cabinet is expected on Saturday to approve a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, but troops would remain in the Palestinian enclave, a senior Israeli government official said Friday.

The official said Hamas was expected to respond by holding its own fire. (AFP)